


♛Blameless♛ Darkiplier x Reader

by fern_writes_stories



Category: Darkiplier - Fandom, markiplier - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Medieval, F/M, Reader-Insert, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:20:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 46,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28119819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fern_writes_stories/pseuds/fern_writes_stories
Summary: It had been so many long, gruelling decades since the takeover...Every human leader was massacred and society was left broken and fearful...Then... HE took control of the world...There was a rebellion, of course, but (Y/n) and her family had no part of it. Instead choosing to live their lives as humble farmers in the New Dark Ages.Until one day when (Y/n) goes into town to buy some bread...A catastrophic bag mix up lands her in prison, leaving everyone under the impression that she is an important member of the rebellion.----!!TW for blood/light gore/murder and all that good stuff!!----This fan fiction was heavily inspired by both 'King of the World' by cassiopeiapendragon and 'Renegade' by Xscapee (both on Wattpad)!! I highly recommend reading those books as well (if you haven't already that is) because they're both absolutely phenomenal. :)
Relationships: Antisepticeye & Reader, Darkiplier/Reader, PewDie & Reader
Comments: 33
Kudos: 44





	1. The Rebel

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Sorry for the annoying note, but I'm not fully aware of the way that AO3 works yet and wasn't sure if there was any other way to tell y'all that this story is still ongoing. Anyway, it's still ongoing/incomplete and I update biweekly! ^^; Follow my Wattpad fern_writes_stories if you want to keep updated on the progress of the book :)

Hardly anyone remembered what the world _used_ to be like. Hardly anyone was old enough to have _experienced_ what the world used to be like. Elders passed down stories of a time when humans weren’t cowering in fear for their lives every moment, a time when everyone (generally) lived peacefully, freely, ignorantly…

Those who had lived previous to the New Dark Ages realised they had taken it all for granted. Many believed there was no way of going back to those days…

When the demons rose, some challenged their authority, but they were ultimately targeted, killed, and forced to go into hiding. Those who survived ‘The Opposing’ in the early days rallied together and formed the ‘Blaze Rebellion’, gathering their forces in a hope to stomp out the darkness and push the demons back underground.

(Y/n) and her family, however, wanted no part of this. When agents came knocking, urging them to join the rebellion and rise against The King, they all refused. They believed that if they avoided the rebellion and stayed out of trouble, they could sustain a somewhat normal way of life in this new world.

(Y/n) would be lying if she told you that she didn’t sometimes think about joining the rebellion.

_It’s just some silly dream,_

She told herself.

_Besides; your family needs you **here**._

Readjusting the bag over her shoulder, (Y/n) ambled through the busy market. She was sent into town with the exact amount of money she needed to buy food for her family for the week.

“Get there and come home as _quickly_ as possible, alright?” her mother had fussed over her before she left.

“I’ll be fine, ma,”

“She’s right, dear. She’s been into town countless times before.” (Y/n)’s father reassured his wife.

“I’m coming with you!” (Y/n)’s little brother announced.

“No, Joey, you have to stay here. You’re too little.” His mother scolded him.

“But muuuum!”

“It’s alright, Joey, I’ll take you into town one day soon!” (Y/n) promised.

“Really!?”

“Really.” She ruffled her brother’s hair. “Now, I’ll be back soon. Don’t get up to too much trouble.”

“Bye, dear. If you come across any demons, try your best to avoid them!” her mother called as she walked out the door.

“Don’t worry, ma, I will!”

\----

Continuing down the stalls of goods, (Y/n) bowed her head slightly as she passed a demon soldier. (Y/n)’s parents had taught her that if she caused no trouble and respected demons, she’d never go wrong and she’d stay out of trouble.

Once he’d passed her, (Y/n) ducked into one of the stalls to inspect the various foods and other edible goods sold there. Deciding there was nothing she needed, she ducked back out again, only to be barrelled over by someone who seemed to be running past.

As they both fell to the ground (Y/n) heard some people in the crowd ‘ooh!’ and startle, but no one attempted to help either of them. Instead, they all went back to whatever they were doing, some people even stepping over the two to go on their way.

(Y/n) sat up, rubbing her head for a moment before seeing the person she’d run into- they were cloaked, so she wasn’t able to tell their species or gender. But it appeared that they’d dropped their bag, which (Y/n) also realised she’d done.

“Sorry, that was my fault- are you okay?” she tried to apologise, but the mysterious person only snatched up their bag and started running again.

“Weirdo…” (Y/n) muttered after a moment, picking up her bag and dusting herself off. What an odd encounter. Nonetheless, she had to buy food for her family, so she didn’t dwell on the stumble for long.

Seeing the stand selling bread, (Y/n) ducked in to select a loaf. Her family were farmers, yes, but very _poor_ farmers. Since the take over the entire world seemed to have grown rather cold… which was no good for crops on any given day. This just happened to be one of those times where they couldn’t produce enough crop to sustain themselves. That’s why (Y/n) was here, buying food.

“Just one of those, please,” (Y/n) stated, pointing to a rather small loaf of bread on a shelf behind the counter.

“Sure thing.” The lady replied, pulling it down. “That’ll be three gold pieces.”

(Y/n) nodded, turning and opening her bag. It took her a moment to realise that the gold wasn’t in there. She rummaged around, but with no luck.

“One moment please,” she laughed nervously, giving the lady a shaky smile.

_Where’s it gone!?_

She thought frantically. But then she realised that this _wasn’t_ her bag. There were rolled up bundles of pages in it, along with a few pens. Her stomach dropped suddenly.

When she’d run into that other person, and they’d both fallen… they must’ve accidentally mixed their bags up.

“Hey, you!” a demon guard called, making (Y/n) look up worriedly.

“M-me?” she asked, her voice shaking intensely.

“Yes, you! What have you got there?” he nodded to the bag full of papers.

“I-I-”

But before she could form the words in her mind, he snatched the bag up, pulling out one of the pieces of paper and unrolling it. His eyes widened, and he turned to her with an expression of alarm.

“It’s a rebel!” he shouted, effectively gaining the attention of everyone around them. Several more demon guards rushed over, two of them grabbing hold of poor (Y/n).

“N-no! Wait! Please! Y-you don’t- you don’t understand!”

Ignoring the flailing girl, the guards dragged her out of the market, everyone clearing out of the way to let them pass.

\----

“I’m not a rebel! I swear to you!” (Y/n) exclaimed as she was thrown violently onto the floor of a cell.

“Tell that to The King, insurgent scum!” one of the guards spat back before they sauntered off.

“No! You have to believe me!” she ran forward, almost trying to squeeze herself through the bars, reaching out desperately to the doorway where the guards were disappearing through.

“Please! Let me go! Wait! Please! Please…!”

After a moment she realised that the guards weren’t going to be coming back. And they certainly weren’t going to believe her. She curled up in the corner of the room, her mind buzzing.

_How are my family going to know where I am? What kind of trouble have I been mixed up into?_

She felt her eyes begin to water.

_How will I ever get out of here..?_

There was no way to tell how long she’d been sitting on the dirty floor of the prison cell. It felt to her like she’d been trapped in there for forever.

(Y/n) startled suddenly at the sound of a door opening, followed by footsteps into the dungeon-esque part of the castle. At first, she thought it to be one of the guards returning to check on her, but these footsteps weren’t as heavy or clumsy as any of the demon guards’. It was someone else. Had someone come to save her-?

“Alright, lass, don’t make this any harder than it needs to be.” A man spoke as he stepped in front of (Y/n)’s cell. “Where’s the rebel base? What were you doing with those plans?”

“What?” (Y/n) asked breathlessly. “I’m not- I’m not a rebel, I don’t know where the base is- I-I don’t know what those plans were, I swear!”

“It’s alright, lass,” the man’s voice- which (Y/n) now caught on to have an Irish accent- softened. “I believe ya.”

“R-really?” for the first time since she’d gotten thrown in here, (Y/n) felt hope spark within herself. Was she going to get out of here?

“No!” he exclaimed rather harshly, laughing to himself. “It’s amazing how _gullible_ ye humans are, did you _really_ think I’d believe that bullshit? Are ye a _spy_ , then?”

“N-no,” (Y/n) stood up and rushed over to the cell bars frantically. “I’m not a spy _or_ a rebel! I’m innocent!” she clutched onto the bars, staring helplessly at the man who’d come to interrogate her.

“What’s ya name, then?”

“I-it’s (Y/n)… w-who are you…?” the man didn’t respond, only rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

(Y/n) studied him for a moment, her eyes growing wide with realisation- she was so overcome with fear and panic before, that she hadn’t even realised who she was talking to until this very moment.

“A-Antisepticeye…?”

“So you _do_ know me! How delightful.” He took a step towards the cell bars, making (Y/n) jump back in fear.

Antisepticeye was one of _‘The Big Three’._ The three most powerful demons in the entire world, the three demons who had successfully brought all of demonkind out of the shadows and into the Overworld to wreak havoc.

“ _Now_ maybe you’ll confess all ye rebel information to me.”

“I’m _not_ a rebel, and I’m _not_ a spy, I’m just a simple farm girl who lives with her family at the edge of town, please, you have to believe me!”

Anti took another step towards the cell, once again making (Y/n) take a step back out of pure fear.

“We’ll just have to see what The King says, won’t we now, lass? But I’ve never known ‘im to be a sympathetic guy.” And before (Y/n) could argue or plead any more, Anti seemed to _blur_ away, leaving behind a few clouds of greenish smoke.

She moved shakily towards a bed that protruded out from the wall of the cell, sitting down on it. She began to wring her hands anxiously.

In less time than (Y/n) had first expected, Anti returned. But all she did was stare worriedly at him again.

“Now look, human, either ya tell me where the Blaze Rebellion base is, or ye family suffers the consequences; got it?”

“No, please! Don’t involve my family! They’ve done nothing wrong!” (Y/n) began to plead, rushing over to clutch the bars of the cell once again.

“Exactly, so you’d better start talkin’.”

“But I know nothing! Please, you have to believe me!”

“Even if I did believe ya bullshit, I have direct orders from The King. Now if you’re not gonna ‘fess up, I have an execution to carry out. See ya later, lass!” Anti said in an almost sing-song voice, grinning from ear to ear.

“No! Wait, please!” (Y/n) began to cry, reaching between the bars almost as if she believed that she could reach Anti.

“You’ll be next, don’t worry. I’d say that I’m sorry for what I’m about to do, but then I’d be lying.” Anti blurred away again in a fit of maniacal cackling that echoed painfully in (Y/n)’s ears.

“No! Please! You don’t understand!” she wailed, well aware that Anti was long gone. (Y/n) stood in silence for a moment, then slowly sunk to the floor as she started crying again.

What had she ever done to deserve this?

What had her family ever done?

How could this have even _happened?_

(Y/n) and her family lived happy, _simple_ lives, they stayed away from the rebellion to _avoid_ things like this happening.

Her mother always told her that _“The universe works in mysterious ways, but it makes sure to get you where you need to be at the right time.”_

Somehow, (Y/n) just couldn’t quite see the universe’s reason for having her end up in The King’s dungeon.

Deep in thought, still crying, (Y/n) didn’t notice the woman standing in front of her cell. The lady cleared her throat, effectively startling (Y/n) as she thought it was Anti coming back to finish her off.

“My apologies, Miss…”

“(Y/n),” (Y/n) sniffed, wiping her nose with her arm.

“My apologies, Miss _(Y/n)_ , but I was just wonderin’… word travels fast ‘round here, and well- are you _really_ with the rebellion?” the mysterious woman asked in what seemed to be a southern-accent.

“No! I’m not a rebel, honestly, I’m not! I’ve never spoken with the rebellion in my life- why can’t people just understand that?” (Y/n) sniffed again, noting the woman’s maid attire. “Who are you, anyway?”

“The name’s Catherine.” She paused, before pulling a hidden stash of keys from around her waist. (Y/n) watched on as she singled one of the dozens of keys out, using it to unlock the door to the cell before promptly opening it and gesturing for (Y/n) to come out.

“I’m so sorry that you’ve gotten mixed up in all’a this…” Catherine muttered sincerely as (Y/n) stepped tentatively out of the cell. “Don’t worry, I’m gonna get you outta here.”

“W-what? How?”

“I’m from the rebellion,” she whispered, “I was sent here undercover to work as a servant in the castle; I know a way we can leave without gainin’ any attention.”

“Why are… why are you… helping me…?” (Y/n) asked in utter confusion.

“Because, hun,” Catherine flashed a smile for a moment, “That’s what the Blaze Rebellion does.”

They rushed out of the dungeon and sped through the castle hallways, Catherine dragging (Y/n) by the hand the entire time.

They were approaching a back exit to the castle, and (Y/n) even felt her heart flutter a little with hope; but, suddenly, several guards shot out from around a corner, blocking them off from the door.

“Shit,” Catherine muttered, and without missing a beat she pulled (Y/n) into another hallway to avoid them. A few more turns later and (Y/n) recognised the front entrance to the castle. They could hear the sound of armour rattling and feet thudding on the ground as guards seemed to approach from every direction.

Catherine darted her eyes around, realising that not both of them would manage to make it out- _alive_ , that is. She turned to (Y/n) and grabbed her shoulders steadily.

“You need to get out of here, alright? You need to go the Blaze Rebellion, tell ‘em what ya know, and help ‘em win this war.”

(Y/n)’s eyes widened to the size of saucers.

“N-No! I can’t! I-I don’t want to be a part of the rebellion- I _can’t_ be a part of the rebellion! I just want to go back to my family!”

“I’m afraid it’s too late, hun, you can’t go back- not now. Not anymore. None of y’all are safe. Listen,” Catherine took out a rolled-up piece of paper from her pocket, shoving it towards (Y/n).

“This is an encrypted map to the rebellion base. All ya gotta do is replace every third word with the corresponding numbered letter combination. Take ya family there, to the rebellion. Tell ‘em Catherine sent ya. They’ll keep y’all mighty fine an’ safe. Now, got all that?”

(Y/n) tried desperately to grasp any kind of words to say. _‘I can’t do this!’ ‘My family will never agree to go!’ ‘But I don’t want to leave you!’_

But it was too late. The guards were all now within thirty feet of them.

“Go on, run!” Catherine cried out, shoving (Y/n) towards the door. “I’ll hold ‘em off!”

(Y/n) started running and didn’t stop or slow down even slightly. She pushed open the door and kept sprinting, farther and farther away from the castle. She regretted not looking back, leaving Catherine to haul the consequences.

But she just kept running, faster and faster towards her family’s farm.


	2. The Rebel

When the farmhouse came into view (Y/n) almost immediately noticed that the door had been kicked in. Ignoring her aching muscles, she forced herself to continue running. She flung herself through the door, barely able to stop herself short upon the sight in front of her.

It was her family…

All of them…

_Dead…_

She just stood there, staring for a moment. Then tears finally began to prick her eyes as she shakily reached out an arm, unable to find the strength to run to them through the metallic taste of blood in the air.

Then she finally began to move towards her brother, slowly crouching down to him. He was completely motionless. Once again she reached out to him, brushing his shoulder lightly with her fingers before flinching back completely.

She shed a tear as she turned to look at her poor parents, who were holding hands in their deceased state. Crawling over to them, (Y/n) embraced them both tightly before she began to sob. After a moment she reached for the necklace around her mother’s neck; a heart-shaped locket containing an old family photo.

(Y/n) tenderly untied it from around her mother’s neck and clutched it to her chest, reeling forward as she began to cry again.

She turned to look at her parents once more, just barely noticing something clasped between their entwined hands. (Y/n) leaned forward and gently pried their hands apart only to see their wedding rings laying in the palms of their hands.

Felling the urge to cry again, (Y/n) held it down as something more alarming came to mind; the fact that she realised she could smell smoke, quickly realising that the house was on fire.

(Y/n) hurriedly snatched the two rings and stood, dashing to the doorway, but pausing at the last moment to gaze back at her deceased family. After that, (Y/n) took off running through the tall grass behind the farmhouse, and into the forest at the edge of her family’s property.

Coughing to clear the smoke from her lungs, she peeked out from the woods and watched as two demons rose from the flames and disappeared suddenly; but not before one of them threw one last fireball at the already burning structure. (Y/n) couldn’t help but watch on as her childhood home, her family, and everything she’d ever known began to burn to ash.

She steadied herself against the nearest tree before sliding into a sitting position, slumping against the trunk, seemingly defeated. Although she was physically looking at her home, she stared off into the distance as she cried silently.

She wouldn’t be able to tell you exactly how long she had sat like that, tears streaming down her face as she sat there quietly. All she knew was that when she looked into the sky she noticed that the sun had moved a significant amount since she’d left home that morning. How much of that time she’d spent sitting against that tree? A mystery to all.

(Y/n) finally drew enough strength to be able to stand, albeit shakily. She opened her curled hand to see her mother’s locket and her parents’ rings. She delicately unclasped the necklace, sliding the two rings onto the thin chain before putting the necklace around her neck and reclasping the mechanism.

(Y/n) stood there quietly for a moment longer before looking down at the last item sitting in her palm, the rolled up piece of paper Catherine had given her. Clutching it in her fist, she looked up at her burning home one last time before turning to stare into the woods.

_I’ve waited long enough._

\----

**_3 years later_ **

\----

“Commander Flare!”

(Y/n) turned her head to see a boy with short dark hair standing in the doorway to her makeshift office.

“James wants to see you; it’s about an upcoming field mission,”

(Y/n) cracked a smile, turning away from the papers at her desk. “Reef, you know you can just call me Flare, you know? What’s with this ‘commander’ business?”

“Sorry,” Reef apologised as he neared. “It’s a force of habit. And it would be disrespectful to shove your title aside! After you earn something like that, why would you want people to ignore it?”

“Because, Reef,” (Y/n) explained as she stood and walked out of the room, Reef following closely behind as they walked down a long hallway. “I’m just like everybody else.”

“Yeah, if everybody else could achieve the rank of sergeant within their first year of service,” Reef muttered to himself as he tried to keep up with (Y/n).

Turning into a room that connected off of the hallway (Y/n) noticed three people standing around a large table in the centre of the room. Continuing in she took up a position around the table, taking note of the giant map on the tabletop. A man with greying hair stopped whatever he’d been saying once he noticed (Y/n).

“Commander Flare, nice of you to join us.” He said, a small smile appearing on his face. “I take it Reef already told you what this was all about.”

(Y/n) nodded. “Yes, General James. He told me it was a ‘field mission’, care to be more specific?”

“It’s a rescue OP.” a girl with darker skin and long brown hair answered. “Nothing too exciting, but nothing we can’t handle.”

(Y/n) glanced to her, grinning. “Correct. It’ll be a piece of cake, right Brandy?” Brandy nodded, mirroring (Y/n)’s grin.

“Not so fast, morons,” a snide voice chimed in. (Y/n) turned her attention to the last person standing around the table. “We have to be smart about this. We can’t just run in there pretending we know what we’re doing. Unless you want to end up imprisoned, too, _commander_.” He shot a glare towards (Y/n).

“With all due respect, general,” (Y/n) began, not breaking eye contact with the smug looking boy that stood across from her. “Do we really need Liam’s squadron for this mission?”

“You’re joking,” Liam stifled a laugh. “You can barely lead yourself to the mess hall, let alone lead a mission to retrieve soldiers from the King’s dungeon!”

“Better watch your mouth, _lieutenant,_ before I’m forced to sew it closed myself.” Brandy snapped. A moment of silence befell the room before James sighed.

“I wouldn’t have called you all here if I didn’t think you all needed to go.” He said, placing his hands on the table. “As Liam said, we need to be smart about this. This is a very serious mission.” James nodded towards Brandy after he’d finished speaking.

“I was talking with the general and a few other strategists earlier and we devised a plan for your squadrons to infiltrate the castle. We received new word on the prisoners’ whereabouts this morning from an unknown source inside the castle walls.”

Brandy then pointed to a part on the giant map covering the tabletop, near where the outer wall of the castle was indicated.

“This is where you’ll wait until the guards have their shift change, meaning you’ll have a few moments when you can sneak past the gates without any hassle. Then, you’ll need to make your way through some of the foliage along the inside of the castle wall to get to this point here-” Brandy pointed to a large clear space on the map, “Where you’ll be able to climb in through a small gap in the castle’s wall-”

“Woah, wait a second- a hole? In the castle’s wall?” Liam began in an almost hysterical tone. “I doubt it. And besides, what about any guards patrolling _inside_?” Liam slapped his hand around on the map where the castle was depicted. Brandy sighed.

“The hole was made recently, so nobody should know about it. And there’ll be somebody on lookout to make sure that there’s no one nearby when you enter through that point,” she explained, crossing her arms.

“Where did you get all of this information from?” Liam pushed.

“From an undisclosed source inside the castle, but I shouldn’t be telling _your_ underqualified-ass that. It’s supposed to be confidential; on a need-to-know basis for the likes of General James and Commander Flare. _Not_ you. So would you just shut up already and listen?”

Liam didn’t respond, and Brandy took a deep breath before continuing.

“ _As I was saying_ , you’ll enter through that point since it’s very close to the dungeon’s entrance. The dungeon isn’t very heavily guarded and only has routine checks- about every ten to fifteen minutes. As of the shift change and the time it would take you to get to that point, I’d estimate that you’ll have about seven or eight minutes to free all of the rebel prisoners and escape through a secret entrance to the dungeon. Which will put you out about here,”

Brandy pointed to a position a little away from the castle’s walls.

“Liam’s team will be waiting around the secret entrance to the dungeon as an additional backup. Any questions?” she asked almost rhetorically, but Liam piped up almost instantly.

“Uh, yeah. How are we going to retrieve the keys to the cells?” he asked smugly.

Brandy only smiled, and as Liam opened his mouth to speak she tossed a ring of keys onto the table.

“Oh...” Liam muttered to himself, seemingly a little flustered.

“I do believe that we’re done here,” James said finally. “We’ll meet back up tomorrow morning to go over the plan one more time before we begin the mission. For now, rest; inform your team members of the mission so that they’re ready when the time comes; train; do what you must. At ease, soldiers.”

James straightened up and everyone around the table saluted as he left the room. As soon as he was gone, (Y/n) turned to Liam.

“Do you always have to be such a prick?”

Liam glared at her. “I think you should be thanking me for my expertise, valid inputs and contributions,” he said.

“Valid inputs-? Those were _barely_ inputs!” came Reef’s voice as he walked into the room. “Let alone _contributions_.”

“You shouldn’t have been listening in,” Liam pointed an accusing finger Reef’s way. “That was a meeting which disclosed classified information-”

“He’s as qualified to hear that information as you are,” Brandy cut in matter-of-factly. “So sit your ass down lieutenant, before I break it.”

Liam gave one last glare around the room before storming out, his loud footsteps following him down the hallway. Brandy sighed.

“One day I really _will_ kick his sorry ass.”

“I’d like front row seats to that,” Reef laughed, and before long (Y/n) and Brandy joined in too.

(Y/n) had spent the rest of her day brushing up on fighting techniques, mostly. She wanted to be prepared for what was to come. She didn’t want to mess it all up because of some sloppy punches. (Y/n) also became quite reserved, spending time in the training room by herself with nobody else around. She just needed some time to think, was all.

And even though she’d spent most of the day training, that night she couldn’t seem to sleep at all. But (Y/n) knew she had to at least try; otherwise, she’d stand no chance on the battlefield the following day. So she laid staring at the ceiling until she eventually drifted into a dreamless sleep.

\----

After returning from the mess hall with her belly full of breakfast, (Y/n) made her way back to the barracks. Sighing, she sat down slowly on her bed, glancing around at everyone else who was still fast asleep. The small analogue clock beside her bed read ‘4:23 am’ in small, dainty numbers.

_Today is the day._

She thought to herself, pulling her necklace out of her shirt. She singled out the locket on the chain, opening it gently to look at the family photo inside.

_Today **is** the day._

(Y/n) began to feel her eyes welling with tears when suddenly she heard a voice from behind her.

“Hey,” came the soft voice, making (Y/n) jump slightly before she quickly shoved her locket back under her shirt.

“Hey, Marcie.” (Y/n) sniffed, wiping her eyes as the blonde-haired girl moved to sit beside her on the bed.

“Brandy and Reef told me about the mission you were assigned to. Are you going to be okay?” Marcie’s voice was soft, like it always was.

“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be? It’s just a simple rescue mission.”

Marcie shook her head. “That’s not what I meant. I know that…” she glanced around quickly, making sure that nobody else was awake before she continued in an even quieter voice, “I know that today marks the three years since your family was killed. I thought you might be a little upset, is all.”

(Y/n)’s eyes went wide for a moment, but then she turned to look at her lap.

“No, I’m fine. Honestly, Marcie.”

Marcie smiled. “Brandy also told me to tell you not to do anything stupid.” (Y/n) looked up, responding with a small smile of her own.

“You should go back to sleep, it’s early. Besides, I gotta go now anyway.” (Y/n) stood, putting her hand on Marcie’s shoulder for a moment. Marcie rested her hand on top on (Y/n)’s.

“Good luck. Although,” she let out a soft, tired laugh. “You probably won’t need it, commander.” A moment of silence passed. “Bring our rebels home.”

(Y/n) gave a firm nod. “I will. I promise.”


	3. The Anniversary

“Quickly, and don’t make a sound!” (Y/n) hissed to the rebels she was leading, stopping briefly before continuing through the grass and foliage. She stopped again and looked around quickly; all seemed to be going well so far.

(Y/n) stood at the head of her team as they pressed themselves against the castle’s outer wall. She poked her head around the corner of the entrance but pulled back quickly when she realised two guards were standing there. Regaining her breath, (Y/n) turned to her team and put a finger to her lips.

They all waited silently until (Y/n) heard one of the guards say, “Finally, shift’s over.” (Y/n) then heard one of them yawn. “Thank Lucifer,”

The sound of both of their suits of armour clambering became quieter and more distant as (Y/n) assumed they were both walking away.

_Not yet._

She told herself.

_I have to wait for the signal._

(Y/n) stared at the top of the castle wall until she saw a sudden flickering reflection. It shined once, twice, three times.

_There it is. We’re all clear, now._

(Y/n) motioned for her team to move forward, and they all made their way quickly around the wall while remaining in their single-file line. (Y/n) brought up the rear as they all kept close to the inside of the wall, using the slightly overgrown grass and shrubbery as cover.

The rebel at the head of the group stopped at a patch of thick ivy growing up the side of the castle itself, reaching out to pull back the leaves and tendrils. (Y/n) didn’t realise she had been holding her breath until now, letting out a sigh of relief after seeing the hole for herself.

The rebel at the front stuck his head through the hole slowly, about to creep in when he reared back suddenly to face the rest of the group “It’s an ambu-!” he cut off abruptly as he was dragged through the hole, and (Y/n) began to panic when she heard the thundering footsteps of guards coming their way.

_An ambush? How? How did they know we were going to be here?!_

(Y/n) had barely any time to think before it settled in that they had to move, _now_.

“Go! Quickly! To the emergency escape!”

Luckily for (Y/n), the rebellion had also planned a back-up in case something like this were to happen- except they had originally planned it for if they got _caught_ , not _ambushed_.

The rest of (Y/n)’s squad began to frantically dash towards the back of the castle, where an inconspicuous bush lay covering a hole that lead under the castle wall. It would be easy for them to escape out that way without too much trouble.

(Y/n), not following after the group, pulled back the ivy screen and launched herself through the hole. The rebel that had been snatched was struggling in the grip of two stocky looking guards, a third standing idly by.

“I told you that they wouldn’t just come in barging all at once through the hole,” one guard was saying to the other.

“Yeah, well, obviously not! We almost didn’t even catch _this_ guy!” they all stopped talking as they seemed to notice (Y/n)’s presence.

“Hey fellas,” she said, standing up. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” she quickly grabbed one of the guard’s arms that were holding the rebel and inverted it at the elbow, causing the guard to jump back in pain. She kicked the other in the head, not hard enough to knock him out but enough to disorient him and make him let go of his grip.

Once the rebel was free (Y/n) pushed him towards the hole. “Go with the others! Out the escape!” he nodded without another word and dashed through the hole.

(Y/n) turned around just in time to see the third guard charging towards her, but she nimbly jumped to the side before sprinting down the hallway, leaving the three guards in her dust.

_I’m not wasting this opportunity._

She told herself sternly as she continued to run through the halls. (Y/n) stopped at one of the turns, hearing guards talking around the corner. She crept along the wall to listen in.

“Any sign of where t’ey went?” (Y/n) felt her heart skip a beat. She recognised that voice.

“No sir, we lost them around the back of the castle.” One of the guards replied.

“Where’d they fuckin’ go, then? Did they climb the fuckin’ wall?”

 _Antisepticeye_.

“Uh- n-no, sir-”

“Then go find ‘em! It’s gonna be _my_ ass on the line if you let ‘em all escape.”

“Of course, sir-”

“Just fuckin’ go already!”

(Y/n) heard the hurried steps of a group of guards as they walked in the opposite direction.

“S-sir? What are you going to do?”

“Me? I’ve got more important things to do.” Anti responded blankly, and (Y/n) heard the guard walk away shortly after.

_All I have to do is get past this fucker._

(Y/n) thought, pulling a small dagger from her belt as she was preparing to dart around the corner. But right as (Y/n) turned the corner she was met with a knife to her throat, Anti directly in front of her.

“Big mistake, bucko.” He let out a shrill laugh “Did ye _really_ think you could sneak up on _me_?” Something seemed to glint in Anti’s eyes for an instant, almost as though he recognised (Y/n).

“ _You_.” He said slowly after a moment, as if finally registering her identity. “How’s the family?” His tone was low and sarcastic. (Y/n) felt a surge of anger rise inside of her.

“Better they’re about to be avenged,” She pulled her arm up quickly to try and slice Anti with the dagger, but he jumped back almost flawlessly.

“You wicked little bitch!” Anti laughed again. “Ye’ve changed since the last time we met,” he commented, pointing his knife at her.

“For the better. I’m flattered that you even remember I exist.”

“Who could forget such a fun time as that? Slaughtering those deadbeat farmers was a blast.” (Y/n) watched a wide toothy grin spread across Anti’s face when he noticed he was starting to get on her nerves.

Anti readjusted the grip he had on his knife, bringing it back to his side. “Well? Are we going to stand here all day chatting or are ye _actually_ going to try and hurt me?”

(Y/n) took up a fighting stance. “Ladies first,” Anti held his arms out in a mock-inviting way.

(Y/n) waited for only a second longer before she lunged forward, bringing her arm down in an attempt to strike Anti. Anti, of course, dodged again, and (Y/n) took this opportunity to begin sprinting down the hallway. She’d barely made it a few feet before Anti appeared in front of her again.

“Not so fast, lass!” he said as he took a stab at her with his knife; but (Y/n) wasn’t quite fast enough to dodge his attack, hissing in pain as his blade sliced along her arm. She grabbed the cut quickly but determined that it wasn’t deep enough to cause any serious damage.

 _That was close. There’s no outrunning him_ ,

(Y/n) concluded as she jumped back from another one of Anti’s jabs.

_Not in a straight line, anyway._

(Y/n) started frantically scanning around herself for anything she could use to deter him. As they continued to edge further down the hallway (Y/n) noticed a small table to her right with a clear glass vase sitting on it. Beside the table was a rather large window.

Right as Anti went in for another stab (Y/n) picked up the vase in one hand and hurled it at him. Three or four black roses, which (Y/n) now realised had been sitting inside the small pot, flew out and smacked Anti along with the vase. The glass shattered against his skin, but luckily for Anti he had blocked most of the vase with his arm. (Y/n) only had a moment to register the cuts on Anti’s skin before she spun around and dived towards the window.

Running at it with her shoulder first, (Y/n) burst through the glass rather easily. She tumbled onto the grass outside, only taking a second to compose herself before she scrambled into a bush that hugged the castle. A heartbeat later Anti landed on the grass near where (Y/n) had, scanning around the courtyard. It was still fairly dark outside, and (Y/n) hoped that it would help conceal her.

Anti let out a sound of annoyance. “The human smell’s fuckin’ ev’rywhere… just what I needed.” He took another quick sniff of the air before preparing to teleport away. “Fuckin’ rebels…” and then suddenly he disappeared.

(Y/n) sat in complete silence for several moments. She had to be sure that he’d _really_ left and that he wasn’t just waiting for her to run out of her hidey-hole; similar to the way a fox waits outside a rabbit’s warren.

A few more minutes passed- (Y/n) wasn’t sure exactly how long, but it felt long enough for the heat to have died down.

_So he can smell humans,_

(Y/n) thought to herself as she crept out of the bush.

_I guess that makes sense._

(Y/n) carefully pulled herself up onto the windowsill before jumping back through the broken window. She rolled along the ground as she landed to dull any noise she might make, then stood up as she scanned the hallway. No one was in sight. Good. She began to jog down the hall, keeping alert for any noises that might indicate someone was approaching.

The rebellion didn’t have a complete floorplan of the castle, not by a longshot, but they had enough information to know where most rooms were and where a lot of the hallways lead to. (Y/n) had made an effort to memorise this floorplan, all in preparation for a day such as this. For an _opportunity_ such as this.

She was making her way to the throne room now since word was that’s where Dark sorted out town affairs in the early hours of the morning. And if he wasn’t there, (Y/n) guessed she’d just have to run around the castle looking for him.

_Surely he knows about the ambush,_

She thought to herself.

_There’s no way he doesn’t. But by the sounds of it, Antisepticeye hasn’t told him about the rebellion escaping yet; I still have time to get the jump on him._

(Y/n) rounded a corner and froze suddenly, surprised at what was in front of her. She quickly dashed back behind the wall again, clutching her dagger tightly.

_There he is._

She poked her head around the corner ever-so-slightly. And sure enough, there he stood.

**_King Darkiplier._ **

_There’s no going back now._

(Y/n) gritted her teeth, her knuckles now white from how hard she’d been gripping the small knife in her hand. Trying to relax even a little, (Y/n) readied herself for what would come next. After a deep breath in, she glided around the corner.

Dark was directly ahead of her, his back turned in her direction. By the sounds of it, he was flicking through some papers. If her memory served, the throne room was up ahead, so (Y/n) had caught him just in time.

_I will take revenge on you for all those you have wronged._

(Y/n) thought defiantly, though she was smart enough to not make a single sound as she continued to creep forward.

_It ends here, and now, forever. Whatever comes next, I could care less. As long as you’re six feet under._

Dark stopped walking suddenly, though he didn’t turn around or stop flicking through the papers in his hands. (Y/n) took this as her chance to dash the rest of the way forward and grab The King, pressing her dagger to his neck.

(Y/n) was almost in disbelief. Had she made it this far? No matter, there was no time for hesitation. She shook the fleeting thought of doubt away and held a tight grip on the blade.

“It was about time,” Dark said rather nonchalantly, catching (Y/n) slightly off-guard. “I was beginning to think that the internal monologue of yours would last forever.”

(Y/n) ignored his slightly confusing words. “I’ve waited years for this moment.”

“You act like you’re the first person to have held a knife to my throat,” Dark responded, and almost immediately after (Y/n) felt him grab her by the arm, flipping her effortlessly over his shoulder and onto the ground.

(Y/n) felt her bones cry out as her back hit flat against the floor; how naïve of her to think that it would be that easy.

Without missing a beat she flipped herself over and swept her leg across the floor, attempting to kick Dark’s legs out, but he jumped back and easily avoided her.

“Determined, aren’t we?” He commented.

“You took _everything_ from me,” (Y/n) huffed.

“Darling, I don’t even know who you are.”

(Y/n) threw a punch at Dark, but once again he easily avoided it.

_He moves so fast,_

She mused.

 _My punches are_ always _fast enough to hit- or at least come close!_

“What’s your name?” Dark said, narrowly avoiding another hit from (Y/n). “Let’s see if I can remember why you want vengeance so badly.”

“You won’t know me.” (Y/n) took a step back, distancing herself from Dark slightly. “But you can call me Flare for the rest of the time you’re alive.”

She dove forward, swinging her leg up in another attempt to strike Dark; but he merely blocked the blow with his arm. (Y/n) was slightly taken aback by his reaction time.

“Flare isn’t a _real_ name.” he threw her leg down, making (Y/n) stumble slightly as Dark continued. “I’ll ask you again; _what’s your name_?” his voice was slightly harsher in tone this time, (Y/n) noticed.

“You’ll have no use for it where _you’re_ going!”

(Y/n) began to charge towards Dark, rearing her dagger back in preparation to attack him again.

“If you won’t tell me, I’ll just find out myself,” he sounded slightly annoyed, but seemingly not fazed by (Y/n) tearing ever closer.

At the last moment (Y/n) dodged to the side, sliding behind Dark as she started to bring her dagger down. Dark wasn’t fast enough to jump away at this point, and he seemed to know that, so instead he spun on his heel as fast as he could and threw his arm in the way of (Y/n)’s blade.

Sure enough, it dug into his flesh, and (Y/n) could’ve sworn she saw him wince for a fleeting moment before he seemed to shake the pain off entirely. And before she knew what was happening, Dark had reached out and planted his hand onto the side of her head.

At this point (Y/n) felt frozen- she couldn’t move. Everything around her seemed to have stopped too, even Dark; then suddenly (Y/n)’s life flashed before her eyes. Well, not her entire life- just the worst part.

(Y/n) watched on helplessly as she relived the memory of leaving her home on that fateful day. Then suddenly she was in the market, buying bread from a vendor before the guards started dragging her away, rebel plans in hand.

It was odd, these were indeed her memories, but everything was slow and cloudy. Like the memories had been covered in dust and strung out on a rainy day.

Now she was in the dungeon, talking with Antisepticeye. His laugh once again echoed painfully in her ears as he was gone in an instant. In the memory she was sobbing on the dungeon floor, but (Y/n) felt her present consciousness begin to choke up too as she readied herself for what she knew would come next.

A flash of memory in running through the halls with Catherine, but in the blink of an eye (Y/n) was approaching the front door to her old house. Without having made it through the door yet she could already smell the acrid stench of death and blood.

Finally, she held her mother’s locket in her hands, crying once again. The last thing (Y/n) saw was the memory of leaving her childhood home for the last time as she entered the surrounding woods.

And just like that (Y/n) was snapped out of it all, fully aware once again of the present. In the same instant, she realised Dark was still directly in front of her, and her dagger was still planted into his arm. After quickly gathering herself (Y/n) impulsively kicked outwards, but Dark seemed to have been expecting it as they both jumped away.

“What the hell was that? What did you do to me?” (Y/n) demanded, still clearly disconcerted.

“The Farmers?” Dark seemed to brush off her questions, drawing the small dagger from his arm with little effort and tossing it to the side. “I remember giving the order to kill them. You’re that rebel they found in the bazaar that day. One of my backstabbing _servants_ helped you escape; not to worry, you’ll soon meet the same fate as your family and that worthless maid.”

(Y/n) felt anger surge inside herself. Without thinking she rushed forward abruptly, punching out towards Dark. He seemed unprepared for (Y/n)’s punch, just barely reacting in time to block it. She mumbled something under her breath.

“Speak up, or your last words will have been wasted.” Dark mocked.

“I _said_ ,” (Y/n) slowly raised her gaze to stare him in the eyes as she spoke. “Her name was _Catherine.”_

 _“_ And why would that matter to _me_?” Dark almost seemed to laugh.

“Because she’s the reason you’ll die by my hands today.”

“Is that so?” Dark couldn’t help but chuckle at this. “Even when you can’t manage to land a single punch on me?”

Without warning (Y/n) threw her leg up, and Dark had been so distracted that he had no time to react before she smacked him in the back of the head. This was her chance, he was disoriented.

“ _Yes_. Because I’m going to avenge Catherine,” (Y/n) kicked Dark hard in his side, sending him into the wall. “I’m going to avenge my _family_ ,” she socked him in the mouth this time, and Dark seemed slightly taken aback by her strength.

(Y/n) reared back, preparing to put everything she had into this next punch. “And for your information, I _wasn’t_ a _rebel_!” but as she threw her fist forward with all the physical power she possessed, her arm stopped abruptly at a secondary force.

Dark had caught her punch.

(Y/n) stared, bewildered. No matter how hard she struggled against his strength, her arm just trembled immensely in return. Her hand wasn’t going anywhere.

_But..! Just a minute ago, he seemed so… weak..!_

“ _Not a rebel_ , eh?” Dark’s voice was low and condescending. “Doesn’t look like it to me. Now tell me, _Flare_ , have you been waiting all these years just so you could come back and kill me yourself?”

(Y/n) gritted her teeth as she spoke, still straining herself to match Dark’s power; his arm wasn’t trembling like hers was, he was keeping this up effortlessly. “ _Yes..!_ ”

“You should learn to… _let go_. After all, a family doesn’t mean _nearly_ this much to most people.”

“Well, it did to _me_!” (Y/n) brought her opposite hand around suddenly to try and get an extra hit in on Dark, but without missing a beat he caught that punch too. (Y/n) felt her muscles begin to ache- there was no way she could keep this up for much longer. She couldn’t match his strength.

“You’ll have lots of time to reflect on those morals, don’t you worry…” Dark’s voice began to fade out around (Y/n) as her vision began to blur. She tried to fight it, but it seemed as though she’d used up all her energy already. There was nothing she could do but accept it as she began to blackout.


	4. Paxton

(Y/n) began to feel the outside world fading in as she started to slowly regain her senses. The first thing she noticed was the cold floor beneath her, then the familiar, musty smell of the dungeon- wait, the dungeon? She sat up quickly, opening her eyes to look around.

_I’m in… The King’s dungeon?_

(Y/n) thought quietly for a moment. Suddenly her memories came flooding back to her; she’d fought The King.

And she’d _lost_.

She didn’t have long to dwell on the thought, though, as her attention was caught by a voice off to her left.

“Hey, you!” someone called out. (Y/n) turned to see someone sitting in the cell next to her own. “You’re finally awake. You were trying to free us, right? Walked right into that royal ambush.” He had short brown hair and dark eyes.

“Sorry?”

“They ambushed you. I’m surprised that everyone else made it out alive.” The man suddenly hardened his stare. “Wait… you didn’t come _alone_ , did you?”

(Y/n) studied him for a moment and realised that she had never met this man before. Was he part of the rebellion? She sighed. “No, I came with two other squadrons. Mine was the one tasked to infiltrate the castle and retrieve all of you, but lucky for us the guards are so terrible at their jobs that we were able to escape the ambush.”

“Hey, what did you say about us?” one of the guards bellowed as he trudged through the dungeon, another two guards trailing behind. (Y/n) stood up and walked to the front of the cell, putting her hands on the bars.

“I _said_ , you’re all a bunch of witless oafs who could easily be replaced by rats!” the guard looked at her somewhat shocked. “The rats could be flea-ridden and _dead_ and they’d still do a better job than the lot of you-!”

(Y/n) was cut off when suddenly the head guard reached through the bars of the cell and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, lifting her into the air. Several quiet gasps from other prisoners echoed throughout the dungeon.

“You better watch your bloody mouth, wench!”

“Put her down!” called the man from the cell beside (Y/n)’s. “Don’t hurt her, she’s just a silly little girl with a sharp tongue!”

The head guard shot him a glare before turning back to (Y/n). “You’re lucky that you’ve got immunity from The King, otherwise I’d have you executed where you stand!” he spat, throwing her to the floor before stomping away again, the two guards following behind without a word.

 _“Silly little girl_? Seriously?” (Y/n) asked somewhat indignantly.

“Are you out of your goddamn mind?” the man in the other cell demanded in a gruff tone.

(Y/n) sat up slowly, rubbing the arm she’d landed on. “I don’t know,” the clattering of metal was heard as she pulled something out from behind herself. “ _Am I_?”

“Holy shit…” the man’s jaw hung open for a moment as he stared at the keys in (Y/n)’s hand. “You _definitely_ are.”

“They didn’t make me a commander for nothing.”

“Sure didn’t,” the man grinned.

“What’s your name?” (Y/n) asked.

“Trevor. Trevor Paxton.” He held his hand out through the bars of the cell. “You?”

(Y/n) outstretched her arm, grabbing Trevor’s hand and shaking it heartily.

“You can call me Flare.”

\----

“So… what did _you_ do to get shoved in here?” Trevor asked. Both he and (Y/n) were leaning on the back wall of their cells, the cell bars the only thing dividing them.

“I guess you could say I got off on the wrong foot with The King.”

Trevor laughed at this. “I guess you could say that for me too.”

“Why?” (Y/n) turned to look at him. “What did you do?”

He sighed. “Though I am only a humble thief, this time I bit off more than I could chew.” He paused. “I attempted to steal straight from The King’s treasure trove.”

“No…” (Y/n) had a cheeky undertone in her voice.

“Yes,” Trevor nodded solemnly. “Sentenced to death for treason. I nearly got away with it, too. Unfortunately for me, Antisepticeye was there to catch me.”

“I know what you mean.” (Y/n) put her head back against the wall of the cell, clenching one of her fists half-heartedly.

The more she thought about it, the more (Y/n) felt bad about compromising the rescue mission for her own selfish desires.

_Maybe we could have freed the prisoners; who knows? I was too focussed on getting to The King._

Sure, (Y/n) had sent her squadron to safety- but it was mostly so that they were out of the way. Out of _her_ way.

Not having much else to do, she mulled over her thoughts.

It was late afternoon by now, and the guards were changing shifts. None of the prisoners had been fed all day, and (Y/n) wondered if this was what usually happened or if it was a collective punishment for the attempted breakout.

(Y/n) noticed though, that instead of leaving his post at the end of his shift, the guard in the dungeon had to wait until the next guard showed up before he could leave.

“You couldn’t have taken any longer?” he asked in an annoyed tone once the replacement guard had arrived.

“Sorry, I lost track of time.” the other guard responded, although he didn’t sound particularly apologetic.

_Not leaving any chance of the prisoners being unsupervised… smart, but… annoying for me._

(Y/n) thought to herself, and the guards changed places without another word.

When the sound of the other guard’s footsteps were no longer heard, (Y/n) turned to look at Trevor. They made eye contact and she nodded her head in a small gesture that wasn’t overly noticeable, but still able to be caught by Trevor. He gave a curt nod in return.

Trevor suddenly began to start groaning and coughing, his head down. This caught the attention of a few other prisoners, but the guard didn’t seem phased at all. Trevor began to groan louder, rattling a rusty, broken spoon against the bars of his cell. Not even a moment later the guard called out “ _Shut up!_ ” but Trevor didn’t stop.

“Please… I’m… not well…” he began groaning again.

“I don’t care!” the guard slammed his halberd into the bars of the cell, causing a loud metallic _twang_ to ring out. “Just shut your complaining up before I shut it for you!” the guard began to step away from the cell, but Trevor instantly began groaning and rattling his spoon again from the back of the cell.

The guard let out a sound of exasperation as pulled out a ring of keys and stomped towards the door of Trevor’s cell. He fumbled with the keys for a moment before eventually unlocking the cell door, swinging it open so hard that it bounced off of the cell bars as it made contact.

“Listen here you vermin,” the guard spat as he made his way to the back of the cell, “If you’re that miserable I’ll just kill you and have it over with already!” he began to raise the halberd over his head as Trevor cowered below him, but (Y/n) quickly reached through the bars of the cell and grabbed the guard by his armour, pulling him towards her and slamming his head into the bars.

The sound of his helmet- and more importantly, his head- hitting the bars echoed loudly throughout the dungeon.

“Better hope that nobody heard that,” (Y/n) muttered, shooting a glance to either end of the dungeon.

“You couldn’t have left it any longer?” Trevor asked rhetorically, letting out a sigh of relief as he stood up and began searching the unconscious guard for his keys.

“Sorry,” (Y/n) apologised as she pulled her own ring of keys out. “I had to make sure he was close enough so that I could grab him without gaining much of his attention.”

“For a moment I thought you were going to let him put me out of my misery,” Trevor joked.

As she reached through the bars and unlocked the door to her cell, (Y/n) could hear the other prisoners in the dungeon whispering madly between one another. (Y/n) opened the door to her cell and walked out, Trevor doing the same.

“Wait…” Trevor looked down at the keys in his hands. “If the plan was to knock out that guard and get _these_ keys, why did _you_ need to steal those keys earlier?” he looked to (Y/n) with a puzzled expression.

“A backup plan, obviously…” She walked over to the nearest cell and began to unlock it. “ _But…_ also because I didn’t think you’d agree to anything I said if I didn’t steal them. It made me look good, don’t you think?” She teased. Trevor only rolled his eyes and began to unlock a different cell.

_There. Conscience clean, prisoners freed, mission completed._

(Y/n) thought to herself proudly.

It only took about five or six minutes between (Y/n) and Trevor to unlock all of the cells. “Is that everyone?” she asked.

“Uh… Yeah, I think so.” Trevor peered over everyone, trying to see if all of the cells had been opened.

“Great. Take the exit I told you to and _please_ don’t get caught; I know the rebellion will be happy that you’re all free but they’ll have my head if the secret tunnel gets exposed because of it.” She gave him a stern look. “When you get to the other end, there should be some rebels in the group of prisoners who can lead you all to the Blaze Rebellion Base.”

Trevor picked up the unconscious guard’s halberd off the ground. “Wait, you aren’t coming with us?” (Y/n) shook her head.

_There’s still a chance for me to finish the job I vowed to complete._

“I can’t. I have unfinished business with the King, and you guys are going to need a distraction.”

“Then I’m going to stay with you,” Trevor said suddenly. “You saved my life, and I am in your debt.”

(Y/n) shook her head again. “No, you need to go with these prisoners. They need you to lead them out of here.”

“But-”

“Besides,” (Y/n) cut in, “The rebellion could use someone like you.” She offered a small smile to Trevor, and he begrudgingly returned it, nodding his head curtly.

“Alright. You’d better make it out alive, though, or I’d never forgive myself.”

“You underestimate me, Paxton.” (Y/n) said mischievously before turning away. She sprinted down the corridor of cells, stopping at the entrance to the dungeon to grab one of the discarded short swords.

As (Y/n) left, Trevor began to gather together the freed prisoners who were handing out guards’ weapons among one other.

“Alright everybody,” he called just loud enough for everyone to hear. “Follow me.”

\----

Having ventured around the castle once today already, (Y/n) found it fairly easy to place herself inside the halls. That being said… this time she didn’t have a _clue_ where The King was. Still, she had to keep moving, otherwise, she ran the risk of getting caught again.

It hadn’t taken long before (Y/n) began to feel the nagging itch that she was being watched.

_Watched? Why would someone be watching me? I’d have heard them if they were._

She reassured herself. (Y/n) turned around, no one in sight. Still, though, the thought continued to play at the back of her mind.

As she began to near another corner, (Y/n) took note of the tall window ahead. Peering harder at it the closer she got, sure enough, she _did_ see someone in the reflection of the glass. And of course, it was none other than Antisepticeye himself.

_No wonder I didn’t see him when I turned around,_

(Y/n) realised.

_That bastard’s hanging off the bloody framework._

In the glass (Y/n) watched as Anti nimbly jumped from support beam to support beam, keeping up with (Y/n). She was quite surprised at how soundless he was.

 _There’s no way I’m getting up **there**._ _But what is he even doing? Just following me? Why hasn’t he tried to stop me yet?_

(Y/n) came to a halt suddenly, deciding there was no other way to approach this situation.

“I know you’re there. I’m not as blind as you seem to think.”

Silence followed, and (Y/n) sighed, turning around.

“I know you’re following me, _Antisepticeye_.” A moment later Anti jumped down from the roof, landing a few feet in front of (Y/n).

“Aw, is that venom in your tone?” Anti asked.

“You’ll get more than venom from me,” (Y/n) spat. “Why do you insist on meddling in my plans?”

“I guess you could say it’s an _‘occupational hazard’,”_ he replied, but then his tone became more serious. “You know I can’t let ye hurt The King.”

“I’ll do a lot more than _hurt_ him, don’t you worry.”

“You know, lass,” Anti laughed to himself for a moment. “You make an _awful_ lot of empty promises. Do you intend to keep any of them?"

“I got to The King last time, didn’t I?” she glared at Anti. “I’ll just have to do it again.”

“Well, I can assure you that ye _won’t_ be able to do it again.” (Y/n) suddenly noticed a knife in Anti’s hand that hadn’t been there before. “I ain’t The King’s ward for nothin’.”

(Y/n) clutched the short sword in her hand tightly.

_At least I have an adequate weapon this time around._


	5. The Deal

“You’re going to an _awful_ lot of trouble for one man, lass,” Anti commented. “I can barely believe you escaped the dungeon unnoticed, let alone your cell.”

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t the only one to escape my cell.” (Y/n) quipped. Anti’s face dropped for a moment, but he soon regained his peppy demeanour. “What can I say; you aren’t The King’s ward for nothing.” She smiled.

“Alright,” Anti’s tone became gruff. “I’ve had just about enough of you.”

He rushed forward, and (Y/n) did the same. She threw her sword downward but Anti jumped away.

_This thing’s fairly heavy; Antisepticeye has the advantage of a light weapon._

He zoomed past her and reared for an attack.

_I’ll just have to use that to my advantage._

As Anti readied for a harsh blow (Y/n) flung her sword against the blade of his knife. They clanged together, and (Y/n) tried her best to overpower him. But, much like Dark, Anti held his own pretty consistently.

“I noticed that you don’t have any cuts from the glass,” (Y/n) mustered out between the effort of pushing her blade down against Anti’s.

“It’ll take more than a silly little vase to dice _me_ like a tomato, lass.” He said.

“Weird metaphor, care to elaborate?”

(Y/n) shoved all of her weight against her sword, knocking Anti back slightly. He ran forward again and raised his knife above his head to slash (Y/n), but this time she deflected the blow with her sword, the knife bouncing off the metal blade.

“What, didn’t you know that demons could heal minor wounds?” Anti asked in a mocking tone. “You keep preaching how great you are but ye don’t know a whole lot about demons, do you?”

“I know enough.” She said finally.

But as she readied herself to charge again Anti disappeared from her vision. (Y/n) looked around wildly, unable to locate him until she suddenly heard a voice behind her.

“I have plenty more tricks up my sleeve, lass.” Before she could spin around and confront him, (Y/n) felt Anti strike her in the back of the head with something- which she assumed was the butt of his knife- and everything went black like the flick of a switch.

\----

Like before, everything was dark… nothing to see, nothing to hear, and nothing to feel… no imagery in (Y/n)’s mind. Just pitch-black darkness.

And unlike before, where she woke up gradually, this time (Y/n) regained her consciousness almost instantly, a sense of panic present within her. Her panic only worsened when she noticed both Dark _and_ Anti standing outside her cell, peering in.

It was sickeningly quiet in the dungeon now. No quiet murmuring of the other prisoners, no sound at all. Much like her unconscious state, there was nothing for her ears to perceive. (Y/n) almost wondered if she had gone deaf until Dark suddenly began to speak.

“Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve come to notice that you are the only prisoner in the dungeon.” He said. “Care to explain?”

(Y/n) was quiet, standing up after a brief instant.

“They’re long gone by now.” She responded to his question.

Dark clenched his jaw for a moment. “That I _also_ noticed.”

“What? Did your pea-brained guards come back empty-handed?” (Y/n) snapped. The dungeon remained still, her voice echoing ever so slightly down the long hall of empty cells.

“ _This one_ wasn’t pea-brained enough to have lost a fight against you,” Dark gestured to Anti, who scowled slightly at his words but said nothing. “You are indeed the only one left.”

“Not for much longer I won’t be.”

“Are you trying to insinuate that you will be able to _leave_?” Dark paused for a moment. “Because I can assure you that you will not escape again.”

“Really?” (Y/n) said. “Because even if that’s the case, I’ll continue to try; try, try, try; no matter _what_ it takes; I will continue to escape.” She spat, walking closer to the bars.

“Or at the very least, make some decent attempts. You can be sure of _that_.”

(Y/n) stared into Dark’s eyes, projecting as much hatred as she possibly could through her expression. But he stood there, still, calm, placid and emotionless. Impossible to read. She couldn’t even tell if any of this was getting through to him.

Anti, on the other hand, was quite the opposite. (Y/n) could practically _feel_ him staring into the side of her head, but she didn’t waver. Unlike his cool and composed counterpart, Anti was very, _very_ expressive.

Dark sighed, turning his head to the side slightly to break eye contact. He seemed as though he was thinking about something.

“Look,” he started, turning back at (Y/n) again. “Perhaps we can reach some kind of… _agreement_.”

“Over my dead body!” she burst out, enraged at the thought of even coming to a compromise with this monster.

“That can… _be arranged_ …” he trailed off for a moment. “But if you’d prefer to stay _alive_ , then I have an offer for you.”

(Y/n) crossed her arms over her chest, glancing off to the side for a moment. “…Go on.”

“I will allow you to stay, comfortably, in one of the guest rooms, but on _one_ condition.”

(Y/n) didn’t respond for a moment. “Which is?”

Dark tilted his head slightly, looking her in the eyes.

“ _No escape attempts._ ”

(Y/n) scoffed at this, turning away.

“Or,” Dark continued, “I suppose you could continue to dwell in this murky, vile dungeon.” (Y/n) turned back to him. “It’s your choice, darling.”

“I’m not your _‘darling’_ ,” she spat back, glaring. Dark let out another short sigh.

“It’s up to you where you’d rather be imprisoned for the time being.”

(Y/n) stood there quietly, and Dark nodded after a moment.

“I do agree that the castle hasn’t got as much _natural charm_ as the dungeon, I can see why you’d want to stay.” He began to walk away when (Y/n) lurched forward suddenly.

“Fine! I’ll accept your offer!”

Dark stopped, turning back slowly with a small smile on his face.

“I didn’t doubt that you would.”

\----

“I told her to fall back if something happened, but she just ignored my advice! If she’d just listened to me-” Brandy exclaimed as she frantically paced the room.

Reef and Marcie had been trying their best to relax her, but it was no use.

“Calm down, Brandy. It was just Flare being Flare.” Reef said as he leaned against the wall.

“No, Reef. I _won’t_ calm down! Th-this isn’t just something we can brush off! It’s not a dumb decision she made during training, it’s a dumb decision she made out in the _real world_ which got her arrested and thrown into prison!”

Brandy turned to look at Marcie, who was sitting down nearby. She had a sad, defeated look on her face. Brandy sighed before walking over to sit beside her.

“Sorry… I’m just… _upset_ that Flare was captured.”

“We all are,” Reef agreed.

A few moments later someone burst into the barracks, panting heavily. Both Brandy and Marcie stood up, Reef also standing at attention.

“The General wishes to speak with all of you,” he puffed.

Reef, Marcie and Brandy all followed the boy back to the edge of camp to where a group of people were gathered. Many people were hugging each other, most of them in tears. As the three of them looked wildly around, the General walked up beside them.

“She did exactly as she said…” Marcie mumbled.

“Hm?” James asked.

“She… she brought them home…” she began to tear up.

“Oh, Marcie…” Brandy pulled Marcie’s head onto her shoulder, holding her tightly.

Suddenly a man with brown hair jogged up to the group.

“Are you the General?” he asked. James nodded. “Flare sends her best regards,” he held his hand out and James shook it heartily.

“You know her?” the General asked.

“Know her? She saved my life!” he said. “She saved all our lives. The name’s Trevor Paxton, she told me the rebellion could use someone like me.”

James shook his head with a small smile on his face. “Of course she did.”

“Why isn’t she here?” Reef asked suddenly.

“She insisted on staying back as a distraction, and something about having unfinished business with the King.”

Brandy and Reef began to shake their heads. “And you _let her go_?” Brandy asked, somewhat in disbelief.

“Well, she wasn’t exactly going to come quietly,” Trevor said. “And besides, it’s about time someone stuck it to that pompous shit-bag.”

“Are you insane?” Reef asked.

“He’ll kill her!” Brandy finished. Trevor looked between them both, then to the General.

“Are you sure that we’re talking about the same ‘Flare’, here?” it went quiet for a moment before Trevor continued. “That girl is the smartest, bravest person I’ve ever met. If anyone can take the King down, it’s her. I thought you guys would have more faith in her than that.”

Brandy looked like she was ready to berate Trevor when the General stepped in.

“No, he’s right.” James began. “We’re not giving her enough credit for the person she is. And even so, we’ll get her back in one piece, that’s for certain.” Everyone nodded.

“But until then, I’m sure Flare can hold her own,” Reef added. “You all know what she’s like- hell, she’ll probably bust out of there before we even get the chance to save her.”

\----

“This way, human,” Anti said as he floated down the corridor. He was currently leading (Y/n) to the guest bedroom that Dark had promised her; Dark had explained that he had _‘business’_ to attend to, leaving Anti alone with (Y/n).

“I suppose you could nearly find the guest room yourself with how many times you’ve been in the castle by now,” he jested.

(Y/n) noticed that Anti didn’t seem too fond of walking, instead opting to float his way down the halls.

“Or maybe ye rebels have pieced together an entire overview of the castle?” once again (Y/n) didn’t respond. “Not very talkative, are ya?” Anti looked back at (Y/n).

When he was met with silence, Anti landed delicately onto the ground and began to walk.

“What’s _your_ deal?” he muttered somewhat spitefully, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“I don’t particularly want to converse with the man who murdered my family,” (Y/n) snapped.

“Ugh,” Anti sighed, throwing his head back. “You’re _still_ upset about that whole deal? People die every day, and your family was no exception. They’d all have died eventually; their death day just came sooner than anticipated.” He continued.

(Y/n) was becoming agitated now. “What about my brother? He had his _whole life_ ahead of him! What had he done to deserve that being stripped away from him?”

Anti only rolled his eyes before turning around and starting to walk away.

“You’re nothing but a dirty, rotten, murderer…” she muttered under her breath. (Y/n) then ran up behind Anti, throwing a half-hearted punch in his general direction. He spun on his heel, grabbing (Y/n)’s arm as it flew towards him, holding it firmly in place as he spoke.

“But what about ye people at the rebellion, ey? They’re no better than us. After all, even killing _demons_ makes you a _dirty, rotten, murderer_.” He said slowly.

(Y/n) didn’t bother to fight back, let alone meet Anti’s eyes. After not getting a reply from her, Anti scoffed and let go of her arm.

“That’s what I thought.” He muttered. Anti lingered for only a moment longer before he once again turned and began leading the way.

The rest of the walk was quiet, mostly because (Y/n) had begun to lag behind. She looked ahead to see that Anti had stopped at a door, waiting for her to catch up. She picked up the pace and quickly jogged to meet up with him.

“God, ye walk so _slowly_ ,” Anti complained, pushing off the wall and opening the door.

Ignoring him, (Y/n) was about to walk into the room without a second thought when suddenly she laid her eyes on two large jet black dogs that were slinking around inside. (Y/n) jumped back instinctively out of fear, now realising that they were _wolves_. She felt Anti grab her by the arm before he jerked her further inside the room.

“A-Are you crazy?!” (Y/n) exclaimed, the wolves now snarling and bearing their teeth at her.

“Relax, they won’t hurt you unless ye try to escape,” Anti explained as he threw (Y/n)’s arm to the side. “So by all means, do please try to escape.”

“Real funny, wise-guy,” (Y/n) retorted, eying the wolves anxiously. Anti turned to leave.

“Hey, wait!” (Y/n) moved to follow him but the wolves began to growl, one of them leaping forward to cut (Y/n) off from Anti.

Anti turned around slowly, looking somewhat annoyed. “What?”

“What am I supposed to do now?” (Y/n) asked almost nervously, glancing between the two wolves.

Anti sighed. “You stay here until you’re further instructed. Dark will probably come and get ye, though.” He scratched his face for a moment as if in thought.

“ _’Dark’_? Do you mean The King?” (Y/n) asked, making Anti look up in slight confusion.

“Of course I fuckin’ mean the king, dipwad.” He said.

(Y/n) felt a little silly for being unsure. She wasn’t used to people referring to him as anything other than ‘The King’, ‘Darkiplier’, or anything else along those lines. Referring to him in a nicknamely manor seemed almost laughable.

“Ah, I gotta go now,” Anti said suddenly, a displeased tone to his voice.

Instead of using the door to leave he disappeared into a fog of green smoke (which is the only way (Y/n) could describe it), reminding (Y/n) again of that day she was thrown into the dungeon.

 _Can all demons do that?_ She wondered.


	6. The Guest Room

When the smoke dissipated (Y/n) noticed the open door to the room. She took a step forward, only for one of the wolves to growl loudly again. (Y/n) had almost forgotten about them, honestly.

Looking quickly between the wolves she began to slowly walk backwards, towards the four-poster bed on the other side of the room.

While the wolves did not snarl or growl this time, their eyes followed (Y/n) carefully as she made her way across the room.

Running back into the bed, (Y/n) fell backwards onto the mattress and quickly scurried along until she could sit against the headboard of the bed. A moment of quiet passed before the wolves slowly began to move closer and closer towards (Y/n), each of them taking up one side of the bed before they both laid down.

While they were still (Y/n) took a moment to study them; they were almost identical, both far larger than any dog she had ever seen in her life, and both donning jet-black fur to match their darkly coloured eyes.

(Y/n) had never seen a wolf before. She’d read about them and seen pictures in books, but never had she seen one in real life; and as far as (Y/n) was concerned, nobody had seen wild wolves in what seemed like decades. Were these wolves demonic entities too?

While (Y/n) was thinking the door to the room slammed shut, startling her and one of the wolves slightly. (Y/n) couldn’t recall having seen or heard anyone approach the room, let alone walk inside to grab the door handle. Then again… maybe she was so deep in thought she just hadn’t noticed?

(Y/n) felt a shiver go down her spine.

She began to inspect the room. It was filled with dark, drab colours, apart from the odd artwork hanging on the wall and the red curtains. There was what seemed to be a closet near the bed and a closed-door across the room. There was also a large window, and from what (Y/n) could see it overlooked part of a rather large forest.

She had sat on the bed for god knows how long, wondering if the wolves were asleep (and if they were, could she possibly sneak past them?)

(Y/n) was almost too afraid to try. Did these wolves answer to anyone? No matter what the answer to that question was, it wasn’t good for (Y/n).

Although she didn’t really notice it, (Y/n) knew that a lot of time was passing. How long had it been? A few hours, maybe? The only indicator that any time had passed at all was the light that began to slowly out the room as the sun had begun to set.

Even though (Y/n) was exhausted, she couldn’t sleep. Not while she was here in Dark’s castle; in the enemy’s territory. Not with those wolves so close to her.

_Has it honestly been an entire day?_

She yawned quietly. Nobody had come to the room at all since she’d arrived. Surely (Y/n) expected _somebody_ to come and confront her about something, anything, really…

Then there was a light knock at the door, making (Y/n) jump a little.

_Who could that possibly be?_

The door opened slowly, revealing a young woman dressed in maid attire. The wolves perked up as she opened the door.

 _So they **are** awake. _(Y/n) thought suspiciously.

The maid glanced cautiously between the two wolves before walking into the room.

The wolf on (Y/n)’s left stood and walked slowly to the edge of the room, watching both (Y/n) and the maid carefully as it sat down again.

The maid, a somewhat worried expression on her face, walked up to the side of the bed and placed a small tray on the bedside table.

(Y/n) leant over to inspect it, finding that the tray had a few slices of bread and a glass of water on it.

“What’s this?” she asked the maid, looking her up and down.

“O-oh,” the maid looked startled, as if she was surprised (Y/n) would even think to talk to her. “ _Rations,_ ma’am…”

“Take them away,” she said, and the maid gave her a confused look.

“Are you sure?” she asked. “We’re not even sure how many rations you’ll receive a day, let alone for the week-”

“I said take them away.” (Y/n) said again, sterner this time. “I do not want them.”

The maid frowned a little. “…You don’t _have_ to eat it, I suppose… b-but I’ll leave it here anyway in case you change your mind!” and with that she quickly scurried out of the room, closing the door behind her. (Y/n) glared at the tray of food.

_I’m not eating anything that comes from this castle._

(Y/n) stayed awake nearly the entire night, only having short naps between intervals of keeping her guard up.

In the morning, the same maid came and swapped a new tray with the old one without saying so much as a word. It was the same as the ‘rations’ that had been delivered the day before.

(Y/n) pondered for a moment, staring at the silver tray.

_Surely you can’t poison bread…_

She thought to herself. She needed the water, too. She wouldn’t survive very long if she didn’t drink any water.

(Y/n) picked up a piece of bread, tearing off a large chunk before turning to the wolf on her right (which was asleep).

“Hey, uh… wolfie,” she whistled to get its attention. “Look over here, wolfie,” she said. The wolf perked up after a moment, and she waved the bread around.

“Do you want this?” the wolf sat up, looking interested. “Here you go!” she tossed the bread into the air, and the wolf jumped up and caught it in its mouth before swallowing it quickly.

Nothing happened. A few more minutes passed, still, nothing happened.

_Maybe it isn’t poisoned after all…_

(Y/n) turned back to the tray, picking up the glass of water and taking a small sip. It only took her a moment before she proceeded to down the entire glass, quenching her thirst. She then slowly began to eat the remnants of the slice of bread she had thrown to the wolf. It didn’t _taste_ poisoned.

After the short meal- if you could even call it that- (Y/n) expected the day to play out similar to the previous one.

Several hours had passed before the door to the guest room burst open suddenly, startling (Y/n) and causing the wolves to perk up a bit. But once they realised that it was only Antisepticeye, they went back to sleep.

Anti snickered after a moment. “I see that these two are keeping you in check. We shoulda got ‘em in earlier!” He walked into the room further before leaning against the wall.

“What have ye been up to, human?”

“None of your business,” (Y/n) snapped. “What are you even doing here, anyway? Come to annoy me to death? Is that The King’s great plan?”

“I’m flattered, but no. I’m here to check on ye. King’s orders. He doesn’t want to leave any possibility of you escaping again.”

“And? I clearly haven’t, you can leave now.”

“Do you really hate me that much? Aww!” Anti rested his head on his hands and smiled childishly.

“I’m flattered, lass, truly I am.” he then sighed, somewhat boredly. “I do gotta go, though. Enjoy your solitude, prisoner!” Anti issued a lazy mock salute before disappearing again.

(Y/n) sighed, her eyes wandering back to a door that was across the room. She had been looking at it for a while now.

_What’s in there?_

She thought.

 _I hope it’s a bathroom_.

Truth be told, that glass of water had run through her quite quickly.

_But what about the wolves..?_

She asked herself worriedly. (Y/n) glanced between them.

_I guess we’re about to find out._

She crawled to the end of the bed, deciding not to try her luck trying to get around either of the wolves positioned at each side of the bed.

Carefully putting one foot on the ground, both wolves suddenly turned to watch what (Y/n) was doing. Nervously, she gulped before standing up fully. The wolf to her left stood up alongside her, but apart from that, neither wolf advanced towards her.

She began to walk forwards, and the wolf that had stood up made its way to block the room’s main door. (Y/n), now worried, slowly made her way towards the other mysterious door. Neither wolf seemed upset by this, which relived (Y/n) almost completely.

She turned the knob behind her back so that she could still see both of the wolves, and was glad when she felt the door open behind her.

(Y/n) spun around quickly and shut the door behind her. She was almost surprised to see a bathroom awaiting her. “Thank god,” she muttered, locking the door.

(Y/n) decided to take a quick shower, not knowing when she’d get the chance again, and use the facilities before changing back into her old clothes. Thankfully, her clothes hadn’t gotten _too_ dirty yet, not to the point where they weren’t wearable.

(Y/n) stared at the locked door for a moment.

_What if I just stayed in here?_

She thought, but sighed after another moment.

_No, that would be pointless. If Anti comes back he would just be able to teleport in here, a lock won’t stop any demon…_

She unlocked the door, opening it and peeking outside to see that both of the wolves were still in the same positions as before.

 _Besides,_ (Y/n) thought, _I’d rather be doomed to sit on a bed for the next week rather than the bathroom floor._

She walked gingerly back towards the bed, clambered back on and quickly glanced between both of the wolves. Once again, neither seemed interested.

_What’s their deal?_

She thought almost in annoyance.

Not even five minutes after (Y/n) had positioned herself back on the bed, Anti blurred into the room.

“Hello, again, prisoner,” he said rather blandly.

(Y/n) threw her head back against the bed and sighed loudly. “What do you want now?”

“I came to check that ye hadn’t escaped,” he said, rolling his eyes almost as if it was obvious.

“It’s been, like, ten minutes!” (Y/n) exclaimed, although she was unsure of how much time had truly passed.

“So? You could _totally_ escape in ten minutes.” He argued.

 _Not with those wolves around I can’t._ She thought bitterly to herself.

“Which is only proven more by your little shenanigans in the dungeon,” Anti added. “So… how’s the life of a first-class prisoner treating you, human?” he asked after a moment, jumping up and hanging from one of the bedposts.

“…as boring as if I were in the dungeon.” (Y/n) responded. “The only difference is that the dungeon hasn’t got any wolves in it, and as of right now it hasn’t got your obnoxious chatter echoing through the cells.”

“HA! That’s a good one,” Anti exclaimed, letting out a sarcastic laugh.

“Glad you’re enjoying yourself,” (Y/n) responded, grabbing one of the four-poster bed’s tucked away curtains and yanking it closed so that she could no longer see Anti.

But she could see his silhouette, faintly outlined by the sunlight pouring in through the large window. The curtains surrounding the bed were thick but still allowed a dim light to be present.

“You can’t just ignore me,” Anti responded almost seriously. (Y/n) quickly shut the other two curtains that hung from the four-poster before sitting in the middle of the bed quietly.

She watched his silhouette float around the bed for a moment.

“Y’know, I could do some _serious_ harm to ya if I wanted to,” Anti said abruptly and somewhat solemnly.

“Well, do you?” (Y/n) asked boldly, but her voice was rather quiet for the tone she was playing up.

“I’m not sure yet.” He spoke slowly.

It was times like these where (Y/n) wished she could just hold her tongue or sit quietly and do nothing, yet she didn’t wish in the slightest that she could just obey demonkind without a second thought. It was a blessing and a curse, this sharp tongue of hers.

(Y/n) watched as Anti’s silhouette reached out and hovered its hands over one of the curtains, his fingers looking almost claw-like for a moment before he pulled away.

“Or I could just leave ye to the dogs…” Suddenly Anti’s shadow disappeared completely as if he had stopped existing altogether. His voice echoed all around (Y/n), not giving her any clues as to where he was.

(Y/n) felt a chill run down her spine.

She watched as giant wolf-like shadows suddenly loomed over each side of the curtain walls and she tensed up for a moment.

(Y/n) quickly grabbed the frame of the four-poster above her and hauled herself up, pressing her arms and legs against the framework to keep herself from falling.

The shadows suddenly became much more menacing, getting larger, pointier and more grotesque as each second passed. (Y/n) felt her heart begin to race before suddenly, much like before, the shadows melted away.

Although the shadows had disappeared, (Y/n) still held her elevated position above the bed.

“I was just kidding…” Anti’s voice echoed, before sounding as if he were right beside (Y/n) as he continued “They don’t listen to me.”

(Y/n) looked up to see a pair of glowing green eyes right across from her

Before (Y/n) had time to react Anti’s foot came flying towards her, kicking one of her legs out and causing (Y/n) to plummet back down onto the bed. Luckily it was very soft, otherwise (Y/n) was certain she’d have been badly hurt from the way she’d landed.

Sitting up slowly she grabbed her spinning head, her eyes snapping to the roof of the bed when she heard loud cackling suddenly.

What she saw was Anti, his back to the bed frame in some sort of Spiderman-esque pose above her.

A bright smile almost glowed on his face as he continued to laugh.

“What the hell are you doing?” (Y/n) demanded suddenly, mad that this seemed to be some sort of comical joke to Anti.

“You shoulda seen the look on yer face!” Anti exclaimed through laughter as he dropped down onto the bed in front of her.

(Y/n) scrambled back a bit, still confused.

“Nah, I was just messin’ with you! God, ye humans are _unbelievably_ easy to fool! I haven’t had a laugh this good in _decades_!”

(Y/n) frowned a little, somewhat upset. Anti noticed her salty expression after he’d finished his laughing fit.

“Oh, c’mon! You have to admit, I got you _good_!” Anti chuckled again, looking towards (Y/n) expectantly.

“Do you even have any friends?” (Y/n) asked, still frowning.

“Oh come on, don’t be childish.” Anti rolled his eyes.

(Y/n) crossed her arms over her chest.

 _Is_ **_everything_** _a joke to him?_

After a moment, Anti also crossed his arms, giving a large frown as he hung his head and even slouched in an over-exaggerated way

“What are you doing now?” (Y/n) asked bitterly.

“wHaT aRe yOu dOiNg nOw??” Anti spoke in a baby-like voice, bouncing his shoulders as he spoke. “I’m being you,” he added in his normal voice, although his posture didn’t waver in character for even a moment.

“What? I don’t look like that!” (Y/n) exclaimed indignantly.

“wHaT??? i dOn’T LoOk LikE tHaT!!!” Anti screeched in his mocking voice.

“And I don’t sound like that either,”

“aNd i dON’t sOuNd LiKe tHaT-”

“Stop it!” (Y/n) cried out, getting fed-up with Anti’s antics. Anti slouched further and scrunched up his expression more.

“sToP iT!”

(Y/n) lurched towards Anti but he blurred away in an instant, causing her to fall into one of the four-poster bed’s curtains and tumble right through, straight onto the ground.

Anti was hovering above (Y/n) now. “I’m sure ye were the life of the party back at that rebel base of yours,” he said. (Y/n) only looked up at him, a blank but sour expression present on her face.

“I’m _never_ going to get out of here…” she mumbled into the floor.

“Nope,” Anti said close to (Y/n)’s head. “I mean I certainly wouldn’t count on it,” he continued as he laid back and began to float around.

(Y/n) sat up. “No… I should have faith. The rebellion will come for me.”

Anti scoffed. “Really? Well I’d like to see ‘em get into the castle walls!” (Y/n) was about to interject but Anti continued. “Even if they _are_ as stupid and determined as you are, do ye really think that The King wouldn’t have beefed up the security since your arrival?”

(Y/n) stayed quiet.

“I mean you aren’t just _some rebel_ ,” he added. “You’re pretty high in the ranks! Don’t expect Dark to just _give you away_ to the first rebel scumbag who shows up at the front door.”

Anti had left shortly after that, but his words still swirled around (Y/n)’s head. Did that mean that she was important? Did The King _need_ her for something?

 _Maybe I’m thinking too much about this_ …

(Y/n) thought, shaking her head as she got herself ready for a quick nap.

_One thing’s for sure; Antisepticeye is the most annoying person I’ve ever met._


	7. Well-Mannered Discussions

When the maid delivered (Y/n)’s rations the following morning, she swapped the trays quickly and rushed out of the room. Which was odd, (Y/n) thought, but she brushed it off.

Turning to the new tray, (Y/n) was a little surprised to see several raspberries sitting on top of the small stack of bread.

_I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen raspberries,_

(Y/n) thought wistfully, but quickly jumped out of her thoughts so that she could pop a raspberry into her mouth. Fruits such as this were considered very exotic around these parts; not because they were unable to be grown, but because The King kept most of it to himself.

Before (Y/n) had realised it, she had eaten all of the raspberries already.

_Darn._ She thought. _Well, it was nice to have something other than bread and water for a change._

(Y/n) picked up a slice of bread to eat, barely noticing that Anti had appeared in her room again.

“Haven’t escaped yet, have ye?” he asked sarcastically.

(Y/n) had almost gotten used to his sudden blurring by now, only shaking her head as she took another bite of bread.

“Good, otherwise I’d be in _deep shit_ , ya hear, human?” (Y/n) looks up at him with tired eyes.

“Yikes! You look _terrible_ ,” he laughed again, jumping into the air as he began to float. “What, wolf got your tongue?”

He sighed. “Really, though, if you’re worried about these two, don’t be. They’re just here to guard ya, so they won’t eat ye if you fall asleep.”

“I wasn’t worried about that at all!” (Y/n) said. “But… how do you know they wouldn’t? Hypothetically, that is?”

Anti snickered. “Ye humans are weird. Nah, they’re under _Dark’s_ command, so they won’t eat you unless he _wants_ ‘em to eat ya. Right now, though? You’ve got valuable information, so I’d say ye’re pretty safe.” Anti folded his arms behind his head as he began to float around.

“Well, you aren’t getting anything out of _me_.” (Y/n) responded.

“That’s what they all say, lass.”

Anti stayed in the room while (Y/n) finished her ‘meal’, looking almost as if he was thinking about something.

“I feel bad calling you ‘human’ and ‘prisoner’ all the time.” He said unexpectedly.

“Who, you? Feeling bad about something? You’re kidding,”

“Hard to believe I know, but to reassure you that I haven’t lost every shred of me dignity, I only feel a _little_ bad.” He then became quiet.

“I have a terrible memory, y’know? What’s yer name?” he asked suddenly, turning to look at (Y/n) again.

A moment of silence passed before (Y/n) responded.

“Flare.”

“Nah, that wasn’t it.” Anti takes up a ‘thinking’ position. “I remember ye tellin’ me what it was when we met. I just can’t remember _what_ it was.”

“My name is Flare, and that is what you’ll call me.” She responded, pulling her knees up so that she could rest her head.

“No, no, no, nonono…” Anti trailed off into muttering, a hand on his chin as he thought. He perked up suddenly, spinning to look at the girl.

“It’s (Y/n)! That’s your name, isn’t it? (Y/n)?” she stared back at Anti with cold, dark eyes.

“No. Not to _you_ it’s not. My name is _Flare_.”

“Flare? Pfft, that’s not a real name! _Flare_. God, who do you think you are?” Anti began to laugh hysterically, making (Y/n) even more upset.

“You won’t call me (Y/n)! You will call me Flare and nothing else!” She burst out suddenly. Anti barely seemed to respond to it.

“If you call me (Y/n) I won’t talk to you. I’ll just ignore you until you address me the way I’ve asked of you.” she turned away, tucked into a ball.

“Well, you’re kind of _demanding_ , not asking…” Anti murmured, and (Y/n) glared at him.

“Do your worst, I don’t care. I won’t respond to ‘(Y/n)’ if it comes from the likes of you.” She muttered back.

“Oh, please, don’t get my hopes up.”

“I’m serious!”

“So am I,” Anti responded nonchalantly.

The room went quiet, and Anti exclaimed after a moment, “Wait- you’re _actually_ being serious?”

(Y/n) was silent. _Of course I am, dumbass!_ She thought angrily to herself.

Anti let out a loud, exaggerated sigh.

“Look,” He began, “I know that being a dick is _kinda_ my whole gist and everything… _but_ , if you want me to call you _“Flash”_ or whatever the fuck it was _that_ bad, I will.”

(Y/n) looked up at Anti and he seemed to startle slightly. “I-I mean- like… how am I supposed to annoy you if you won’t even talk to me? Where’s the fun in that?” he looked away from her. “My whole ‘torment and bother’ gag would be rendered useless.”

“Well… I, um… hate to burst your bubble, Antisepticeye, but you aren’t doing a very good job at tormenting me.”

“I know,” he said suddenly, “That part’s more of a hobby.”

(Y/n) laughed lightly.

“If it means anything to you Antisepticeye,” Anti turned to look at (Y/n). “I quite… _appreciate_ your visits; even if you’re extremely annoying. To be honest, I was waiting to be interrogated constantly or ignored completely. This… is a much nicer surprise.” She admitted.

“Well, it won’t _all_ be a surprise. I know for a fact that Dark will interrogate you _himself_.”

“Why? Did he tell you that?”

“Nah,” Anti responded. “I just know it. When you’ve known someone for as long as I’ve known Dark, these things are easy to guess.” Anti went silent for a moment. “Unrelated, I overheard him telling Die that he’s planning to interrogate you.”

(Y/n) rolled her eyes.

“So… why do you want to be called _Flare_?” Anti asked quietly, landing on the ground and leaning against one of the bedposts. “Not that I actually _care_ about your ‘sob-story’ of a life, though.”

“Of course not, I’d never dream of it.” (Y/n) responded rather light-heartedly. “But, uh… personal reasons, I suppose…”

There was a moment of silence before (Y/n) looked up at Anti. “Could you maybe… not tell people my _other_ name? Please?”

Anti was about to crack another joke, but something stopped him. “Um, sure, I guess.” He responded casually, glancing away from (Y/n)

“Thank you.” (Y/n) responded, offering Anti a small, but genuine, smile. He gave her a lopsided grin back.

(Y/n) noticed that Anti had turned and begun petting one of the giant wolves.

“I don’t like the way you’re touching that thing,” she said, her face scrunching up slightly.

“What? Why not?”

“It could bite your arm off at any second. I know you said that they were under The King’s command, but I wouldn’t put it past them to go against orders.” (Y/n) peered down at the wolf on the other side of the bed, asleep

“Oh, relax,” Anti said, “They love me!” he paused to continue petting. “At least this one does. The other guy?” Anti stopped to look at the sleeping wolf. “..Yeah, not as much.”

“What’s their deal, anyway?”

“Huh?”

“Like… what _are_ they? Where did they come from?”

Anti shrugged. “Beats me, they just appeared one day and Dark said they were his.”

“And you never questioned him?”

“What’s to question? They’re giant snuggly bugs!” Anti exclaimed as he leapt towards the wolf he had previously been petting, knocking it to the floor before embracing it.

“H-Hey!” (Y/n) yelped, fearful that Anti was about to lose his face.

The wolf only embraced Anti back, and he was almost buried in the wolf’s fur.

“H… How are you doing that..?”

Anti stuck his head up so he wasn’t talking into fur. “How am I doin’ what?”

“How are you… so close to it? How are you touching it, why isn’t it getting mad?” (Y/n) leaned further over the side of the bed to get a closer look.

“I think they’re a lot like regular wolves; they can practically _smell_ fear, but if you’re not afraid… then ye’ll have no problems!” (Y/n) gave him a funny look. “Well, _most_ of the time at least!” Anti admitted somewhat exasperatedly.

It was then that a thin black mist began to flood into the space, before concentrating in the centre of the room. Anti and (Y/n) didn’t seem to take notice, but the wolves did, both freezing up for a moment.

The mist began to resemble a figure as it gathered and darkened, before suddenly all the misty-smoke disappeared in an instant and King Darkiplier was left in its wake.

The instant that Dark appeared, the sleeping wolf stood to attention while the wolf cuddling with Anti got up quickly, leaving the latter on the ground.

(Y/n) noticed this and followed where the wolves were watching, stiffening up when she laid eyes on The King. She shuffled back from her position of leaning over the bed, meanwhile, Anti stayed lying grumpily on the floor.

“Why’d ya gotta come in and ruin a good thing,” Anti complained, standing up and brushing himself off.

“Oh, Anti… I didn’t know you were here. I was looking for you earlier, and of course you’d be in the prisoner’s room.” (Y/n) narrowed her eyes at the word _‘prisoner’_.

 _Not for too much longer, I won’t be._ She thought.

“Now, now, let’s not be too hasty…”(Y/n)’s eyes widened slightly.

_How did he-_

“I know you must be _very_ confused, they all are at first…”

Anti glanced between the two before rolling his eyes. “Cool magic trick Houdini, done flexing yet?”

Dark’s eyes flickered to Anti. “I almost forgot you were here, Anti. But now I must ask you to leave, I’d like a minute with her alone.”

Anti rolled his eyes again, blurring away as he did earlier in a cloud off green misty-smoke.

Once Anti had vanished, (Y/n) instantly turned her attention back to Dark. He slowly turned to lock eyes with her, staring for a moment. It made (Y/n) a little nervous, honestly.

_Is he trying to read my mind again?_

Her thought was almost instantly followed by a small laugh from Dark, barely audible, and she felt silly knowing that he indeed _had_ read her mind.

Dark began taking slow steps towards (Y/n). “So, _Flare_ , I was wondering…” he walked up to one of the wolves and pet it lightly. “Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?” it sounded more rhetorical than anything.

(Y/n) drew in a breath. “I don’t have a choice, do I?”

Dark lifted his gaze from the wolf.

“…No, you don’t.”

Another moment of suspenseful silence passed before Dark spoke again. “Are you enjoying your time here?” he asked softly. “Much better than the dungeon, I’d presume.” He gestured around the room.

“We both know that you didn’t come here to get feedback on the customer service.” (Y/n) retorted.

In an instant Dark was suddenly seated on the other side of the bed beside (Y/n). She jumped slightly, shifting away whilst trying to keep her composure during all of this weirdness.

“No, you’re right… I didn’t.” he crossed one leg over the other rather nonchalantly. “You wouldn’t happen to know where the Blaze Rebellion is, would you?” he asked.

(Y/n) tried her hardest to make her mind go blank; surely if she had no thoughts in her mind he couldn’t read them!

(Y/n) felt a shiver go down her spine before Dark turned to look at her. “Impressive…” he said. “It can take one years to master the ability of clearing your mind to the extent that you have…”

“Or an iron will,” (Y/n) shot back. Another moment of silence. Dark was suddenly standing at the foot of the bed.

_How is he doing that!? I didn’t even see him move!_

“Now… _Commander Flare_ , was it?” Dark asked. (Y/n) had a sick feeling in her gut.

“Commander _Flare…_ ” Dark muttered the name a few times to himself before looking up at (Y/n). “But that’s not truly your _name_ , now is it?” (Y/n) continued to clear her mind and control her emotions as best she could. “As I said earlier, Flare isn’t a _real_ name. Unless your parents truly were that dull.”

(Y/n) clenched her jaw. _How dare you try and belittle my parents._

A ghost of a smile crossed Dark’s face. “And, once again, it takes you no time at all to lose control of your emotions.” (Y/n) realised that he’d manipulated her into presenting thoughts again, and she quickly shut off her mind.

“Just like a switch, hm? Flicking on and off? It seems like you don’t have much control over who’s flipping the switch, though.” He taunted.

Dark was once again suddenly seated on the bed- the other side, this time. “You still haven’t answered my question.”

He looked towards (Y/n) almost expectantly, his eyes burning into her very soul as if he was searching for something.

(Y/n) kept her guard up nervously, although she held a somewhat confident expression on her face.

“I suppose a name isn’t all that important.” He let out a short sigh before he turned away, almost as if he was thinking.

Dark was once again gone in an instant, and (Y/n) became nervous before she noticed he was now standing across the room, looking up at a painting on the wall.

(Y/n) turned to get off the bed, an anxious feeling overcoming her when she didn’t see the wolf that had previously been there. She quickly scanned the room, realising that both wolves had seemed to disappear without a trace.

Quickly brushing it off, she stood up and began to walk slowly across the room towards Dark.

The painting he was looking up at was of a woman with long brown hair. The picture was painted with lots of dark, bland colours, yet the woman still managed to keep a small smile on her face. (Y/n) had never seen this woman before in her life.

(Y/n) decided it was wise to keep her distance from Dark, so she admired the painting from afar as opposed to standing beside Dark.

“There isn’t a lot of significant artwork made these days,” Dark said. “I suppose it is because demons tend to live a life of that close to immortality. Way back when, human artists tended to not get much recognition for their art until death, which was when they became most famous; their art priceless from that point on.” he paused. “I believe it is a reminder to humans of how close death can truly be…”

(Y/n) wasn’t sure how to respond. She was confused, trying to fathom why he would be telling her this suddenly.

Dark appeared directly to (Y/n)’s left, making her flinch and take a few steps back from him.

“It is to my understanding that humans don’t make a habit of living for a very long time. And if you plan on living for as long as you can, I’d recommend that you tell me something worth my time about the rebellion.”

(Y/n) only looked back at Dark, not saying a word. He sighed, fixing the cuff of one of his sleeves. “I had intended to keep this civil, but if you’re going to be like _that_ ,”

Before (Y/n) had time to react she was suddenly shoved against one of the walls, Dark nowhere in sight

_What? I thought we were in the middle of the room-?_

(Y/n) realised that Dark must have teleported her across the room. She looked around frantically for him, startled when he appeared in front of her again.

“Now if you don’t tell me where the rebellion is, you will force me to do something that I don’t want to do.” Dark’s whole demeanour seemed to change at that moment, nearly every ounce of calm had disappeared from him and was replaced with discontent. (Y/n) didn’t let her guard down, though, making sure to cut her mind off from Dark.

His expression seemed to darken, a look of frustration starting to overcome his composure. The air around them began to crackle like static as the whole room seemed to dim around Dark. His eyes were piercing her like a knife, almost as if they were searching for something unseeable, but (Y/n) refused to let him into her mind. No matter what happened, she _couldn’t_ let him in for the sake of her friends and everyone else at the rebellion.

“You won’t hurt me,” (Y/n) began boldly, surprising herself slightly. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she struggled to keep her voice steady. “I know you won’t. Because I’m the only leverage you have over the rebellion, right?”

The room began to grow even gloomier, the sound of white noise almost suffocating.

“You don’t have any leverage if I’m dead, and you know that!” (Y/n) shouted over the noise. Dark seemed to snap at this, slamming his fist into the wall beside (Y/n)’s head.

The darkness and the static seemed to cease all at once upon the impact, and (Y/n) felt loose pieces of stone hit her. A small amount of dust seemed to rise from the wall, too.

Dark was quiet for a moment before he pulled his hand away from the wall, making a few small rocks fall and crumble away. He looked down, turned away, and held his hands behind his back. It almost scared (Y/n) at how calm his voice was as he said, “Do not think that this is the end,” and then he disappeared into a dark cloud.

(Y/n) tried to hold back her anxious shaking but couldn’t help but let herself tremble slightly. Once the cloud had dissipated completely, (Y/n) let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. She turned slowly to look at the wall, and her eyes widened.

There was a sizeable divot in the wall only a few inches from where (Y/n)’s head had been mere moments ago; the wall around the small crater was completely cracked, most of it broken away. Looking along the wall, (Y/n) realised that a few of the cracks stretched several inches along the wall. She shivered, knowing that could’ve been her head.

Exhausted even more by that interaction, along with the strain of keeping her thoughts closed off, (Y/n) slid down the wall and sat against it, taking a deep sigh. She was glad that was over.

For now.

She was overcome by an overwhelming urge to sleep, and she passed out with little refusal.


	8. The Proposition

“Well, that went exceedingly well,” Die commented sarcastically. “You even managed to scare her half to death. I’ll give you some credit, though, you kept your cool for longer than I’d expected you to.”

Dark brushed some hair out of his face. “It’s fine.” He said plainly.

“She found the loophole far sooner than you’d anticipated her to.”

Dark didn’t respond.

Die sighed. “I mean, after she’d become the first human to escape the dungeon singlehandedly I thought that you’d be wise enough to not underestimate her.”

“She escaped twice, actually,” Anti called out. Dark and Die looked up to see Anti sitting on the windowsill of a rather high arched window above them, a leg dangling over its side while he tossed a knife into the air.

“Where have _you_ been?” Die asked, his tone on the verge of being stern.

“Around,” Anti responded.

“Get down from there,”

“Sorry, mum, but ye don’t control me.” Die sighed at this.

“Anti, we’re having a serious discussion down here,” Dark said, noticing that Die was becoming annoyed with Anti’s attitude, but also clearly unsure of what to do. “And unless you have anything to input about the girl, kindly find another window to loiter in.”

Anti caught his knife as it came down, turning to look down at the two. “Ye’re talkin’ about the human?”

“Yes,” Die sighed. “I assumed that you had actually been _listening_ to the conversation, but obviously I was incorrect…” he muttered.

“So I assume that the interrogation didn’t go so well?” Anti dangled the top half of his body over the windowsill, still looking down at them.

“…Not particularly, no.” Dark responded after a moment, turning around.

“Did ye get her to tell ya _anything_?” Anti asked in an exaggerated tone.

“No,” Die answered for Dark, not wanting Anti to get on his nerves too much after the whole incident that had happened. “She has a far stronger will than we could’ve ever anticipated.”

Anti raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so the whole _“tryin’ to assassinate the king”_ stunt that she pulled or the fact that she escaped from the dungeon _twice_ didn’t give ya that idea already?”

Die sighed. “I meant mentally. It takes a lot of focus and training to clear your mind to the extent that she does.”

“Indeed,” Dark added. “I usually find it quite easy to reach into someone’s mind, especially a human’s.”

Anti furrowed his brow, jumping down from the windowsill effortlessly. “Wait, so you’re tellin’ me that ye couldn’t get in _at all_?” he asked in a mixture of shock and amazement.

“She wasn’t _completely_ in control,” Dark continued, walking towards a table placed at the edge of the room. “For example, if I manipulated her enough, she would lose control of her emotions and once again her mind would flood with thoughts.” He picked up an apple that was sitting on the table.

“I should have tried this method further, but unfortunately my temper got the better of me.” He held the apple up as if to inspect it.

“I won’t let it happen again.” And in one movement he crushed the apple in his hand, fruit flesh and juice spraying everywhere. When Dark opened his fist again, all that was left was the crushed remains of the apple.

Dusting his hands off, he turned to Die. “Ensure that no rations are given to her until further notice.”

Die looked confused for a moment. “But my King-”

“Not until I give the word,” Dark snapped as he turned and began to walk out of the room. “And get her file on my desk as soon as you can, Die.”

Stopping in the doorway, he called back, “Anti,”

“What?”

“You met her that day when she first arrived in the dungeon, didn’t you?” Dark asked.

Anti began to feel uneasy. “Yeah.”

“What did you say her name was?”

Anti crossed his arms over his chest. “I didn’t.”

Dark gave a curt nod without turning around and proceeded to walk out of the room.

Anti and Die exchanged looks of worry.

\----

Waking up slowly, (Y/n) felt oddly refreshed considering she’d barely gotten a wink of sleep since she’d arrived in Dark’s castle.

She opened her eyes to see that both of the wolves had returned and were positioned on each side of her. Jumping and scrambling up against the wall, (Y/n) began to breathe heavily.

_Wait- what was that thing Anti said-? They can taste fear, or something?? No- **smell** fear! Just… don’t be afraid…_

(Y/n) took a deep breath, glancing between the two wolves.

_Yeah, way simpler than it sounds, Anti._

She thought, a little annoyed.

(Y/n) began to stand up shakily, one hand on the wall to keep steady and stop herself from falling over. She tried her best to psyche herself up and dash past the two wolves, but all confidence was thrown out the window when one of the wolves sat up suddenly and loomed over her.

(Y/n) began to feel herself shake slightly, but she grabbed her trembling arm firmly and tried to hold it in place.

She brought together the courage to look the wolf sternly in the eye, but its cold hard stare sent shivers down her spine and she pressed her back against the wall.

_W-what the hell-!?_

She thought frantically. The wolf suddenly brought its head down closer to (Y/n)’s as it began to growl quietly, staring her down.

Then there was a knock at the door. (Y/n) looked desperately towards the entrance to the room, and the wolf still laying down turned its head too. The sound of the door opening prompted the wolf looming over (Y/n) to turn and look as well.

The door opened to reveal a man. He stepped inside the room slowly and closed the door behind him, and without a second thought, he continued walking towards (Y/n). As he approached, both of the wolves backed away from (Y/n) slightly, giving her some space.

 _Is that who I think it is..?_ (Y/n) thought, almost in disbelief. If this truly was who she assumed it to be, then she’d met every member of ‘the big three’ within the past week.

“Good morning, Commander Flare.”

(Y/n) was a little taken aback by how polite he was, but kept her guard up nonetheless. “What do you want?”

“My name is Die, and-”

(Y/n) cut him off before he could continue. “Die? As in Pew _Die_? From _the big three_?”

He sighed. “Yes, I suppose so. But you can just call me Die. I came to talk.” Die spoke quietly- at least, much quieter than Anti did.

“Yeah, well, the last time someone told me that it didn’t end so well.” She glanced back to the crater in the wall.

“Not to worry, my fuse is much longer than his. Then again, you just know how to push all the right buttons, don’t you?”

“I guess I have a knack for it,” (Y/n) responded somewhat nervously.

“Well, before we get too into things, allow me to fix the room up a bit.” (Y/n) was about to make a maid joke when Die waved his hand suddenly in the direction of the wall crater.

“Exsarcio,” he said confidently, and a thin blue wisp began running along the wall. “You might want to step out of the way,” Die suggested.

All of the rubble and debris on the ground began to shake vigorously, and (Y/n) took that as her cue to move. It all began to roll quickly back towards the wall and eventually lift into the air, the wall seemingly piecing itself back together. The large cracks along the wall began to disappear under the wisp, the wall also seeming to uncave itself.

It took only another moment before the wall was completely fixed, back to its normal state as if nothing had ever happened to it.

(Y/n) looked to Die as the blue wisp returned to his hand, disappearing without a trace.

“Demon Magic.” She concluded aloud.

“So I take it you’re familiar with it?” Die asked, brushing his hands off.

“I’ve never seen it performed before…” she continued in a confused daze.

“Yes, well, not many demons still possess the ability to use and control it. People eventually stopped practising it and magic soon became no longer needed.” Die explained. “Now, though, only the most powerful of demons can conjure it even with years of practice.”

“You said you were here to talk?”

“Oh, yes,” Die nodded. “And I also came to inform you that your little shindig with The King didn’t go down so well.” (Y/n) was about to ask what specifically he meant but he continued almost immediately. “He’s planning to starve you into talking, but he won’t stop there.”

“Why are you telling me this?” (Y/n) asked.

“Because if you give me some kind of valuable information to pass on to The King, perhaps I can convince him not to discontinue your rations.”

“If you can even call them that,” she almost spat back, rolling her eyes.

“I’m sure you’d prefer a slice of bread over starvation,” Die said plainly.

“Well tell your _King_ that he can do his worst, I’ll never reveal anything to him about the rebellion.” (Y/n) stated defiantly.

“You know,” Die began to respond, “The King would never usually make a deal with a prisoner- no matter how much information they held about his enemies. I’m surprised at how kind to you he has been up to this point. I don’t think you want to know what it’s like when he _really_ treats you like a prisoner.”

The room was filled with silence for a moment.

“So just give me some information, any information, about the rebellion. For your own sake.” Die coaxed.

“I… I can’t…” (Y/n) turned away from Die, who only sighed in response.

“You can’t say that I didn’t try…” he murmured to himself as he walked out of the room, leaving (Y/n) alone with Dark’s hounds once again.

\----

Dark sat in his study, signing off on various paperwork and writing correspondents to the lords and ladies who maintained order across the land. Although he was King, he certainly couldn’t ensure that peace remained across the world on his own.

Die opened the door to the office, causing Dark to pause for a moment before he dipped his pen into more ink and continued writing.

“What is it, Die?” he asked without looking up again.

“The file you asked for, sir.” He placed it onto the desk beside Dark.

“Again, with the formalities?” Dark put his pen down to grab the file. “We’re friends, aren’t we? There’s no need for such official language.”

“Whatever you say, my king.” Die responded as he stood to the side.

Dark sighed quietly before opening the file. It was marked as “The (L/n) Farmers”.

“Why is there only one page?” Dark asked almost immediately, flipping the page back and forth.

“You’ve only ever asked that there be a record of each peasant family and what services they provide to the castle, although even as farmers the (L/n)’s didn’t offer much.” Die answered.

Dark didn’t respond as he began to read through the page.

_The (L/n)’s; family of four, farmers._

_No known history or linked activity with the Blaze Rebellion; eldest daughter accused of suspicious activity in aiding the rebellion._

_All family members deceased by command of King Darkiplier after said eldest daughter refused to comply when under interrogation._

“It says here that this family is completely deceased,” Dark queried.

“Yes, it does say that.”

Dark looked up at Die to respond somewhat sarcastically, “Then who do I have imprisoned in my castle?”

“If you’re going to point fingers, point them at Anti; after all, he was the one tasked with killing the (L/n)’s.”

“And another thing,” Dark began, closing the file. “Are there any recorded first names for this family?”

“No,” Die responded. “You told the scribe not to waste his time with the peasants’ first names.”

“You were the scribe, were you not?”

“I was.”

It went quiet.

“Could you not simply attempt to read her mind?” Die asked after a moment.

“That’s the funny thing…” Dark began. “I did.”

“What?” Die asked, confused. “Then why don’t you know her name?”

“When I reviewed her memories, all instanced of her name were blurred out,” Dark explained. “Every time her name was about to be spoken, it was as if…” he trailed off.

“As if..?” Die prompted him. Dark met his eyes.

“As if someone had changed the radio station, causing the words to become… quiet, and muffled.” He paused. “It was peculiar, truly…”

“Perhaps, if I will, she has pushed her name so far down in her mind that it has altered her memories?”

“Yes, but… why would someone wish to do that?” Dark asked.

“I’m not sure, my king.”

Another beat of silence passed as Dark went back to signing the stack of paperwork, Die picking up the (L/n) family file.

It only took Dark a moment to realise that Die was still lingering.

“Is there… something else you wanted to speak to me about, Die?”

Die hesitated for an instant but responded promptly. “I propose you invite the human to a civilised meeting.”

“A ‘civilised meeting’?” Dark questioned, signing another paper.

“Yes… perhaps that of a dinner?”

Dark stopped writing and looked up at Die with a cold stare.

“You know that I already halted her rations. Why would I now invite her to _dinner_?”

“I’m just saying,” Die continued quickly. “Perhaps if you were a little friendlier towards the human, she would be more inclined to reveal rebellion secrets to you.”

Dark put down his pen, closing his eyes for a moment as he sighed. “Die, I know that you feel some kind of sympathy towards most of our prisoners- and even the humans as a whole, but _please_ don’t let that blind you to reality. We have far too much on our plates to be worrying about the insignificant feelings of a human.”

“Yes, I know, but… hear me out for a moment.”

Dark sighed, weaving his fingers together as he leant on his desk. “Be my guest.”

“I propose that you take a different approach to getting the valuable information that the human holds.”

Dark didn’t speak, waiting for Die to continue. Die took this as a good sign.

“What if you attempt to be friendly and inviting rather than resorting to interrogations and torture?”

“I’ve been nothing but kind to that nuisance,” Dark snapped suddenly, his voice low.

Die gave Dark a look. “I’m sure we can both agree that you’ve been tolerable at best.”

Before Dark could open his mouth to argue Die continued. “The same methods of torment and questioning haven’t exactly failed us, but they haven’t been the most resourceful or functional, either.”

“What about it isn’t functional? If worse comes to worst, a threat on their life does the trick.”

“Yes, but this human is… different.” Die pointed out.

“Enlighten me.”

“All she’s living for is your death and downfall. She has no family to live for, no other great purpose- I feel as though a threat on her life won’t do a lot.”

"You’re saying that as if she almost… has nothing else willing her on?” Dark asked finally.

“Yes. Think about it; after all this time, she still holds so much _hatred_ and _determination_.”

Dark was quiet, as if thinking on this possibility.

“So I’d suggest,” Die began again, making sure he had Dark’s attention, “rather than killing her with a mace, you kill her with _kindness_.”

Dark seemed to almost wince at this. “I’m sorry?”

“I know, that was very corny- but my point still stands. Instead of overwhelming her with pain, dread and suffering, overwhelm her with… generosity, and…” Die had a hard time placing the words.

“Benevolence?” Dark asked, though it didn’t sound very sincere.

“Exactly.” Die disregarded his mockery.

“That is utterly ridiculous.” Die could hear the venom in Dark’s tone. “Why would I stoop to the level of a human after all I’ve done to oppress and distance myself from them?” Dark’s red and blue aura began to waver, hazing and beginning to crack slightly. “Humans are the scum beneath the feet of all demonkind.”

“I know that you seek to tyrannize the humans- and you’re free to do that, nobody’s going to stop you, but what if just this _once_ , you jumped to the other field for a change?”

Dark still didn’t seem any more pleased.

Die began thinking quickly on a way to convince the King. “You can twist this into a very dark torture method in its own way,”

Dark looked as if he relaxed a little at this idea, but the movement was so discreet and small that Die almost believed that he had imagined it.

“You can lull the human into a false sense of complacency before disposing of her.”

“Are you proposing some kind of betrayal?” Dark asked.

“If you wish it so, my King.”

“And how would you suggest this all play out?”

“I say that you befriend the human,” Die noticed that Dark seemed to slightly cringe at this. “Get her to trust you so much that she would feel free to let her guard down, allowing you to manipulate her into revealing rebellion secrets. Then, once you get what you want, you can dispose of her however you like.” Die paused for a moment.

“Humans are especially emotional creatures, as we all know. Some might argue that deep, twisted emotional pain outweighs that of any sort of physical pain imaginable.” Die seemed to become thoughtful for a moment.

“Yes, well, very touching, Die.” Dark gave mock applause. “But I’m one of your closest friends, and you should understand by now that I undoubtedly know you better than you know yourself.”

Die swallowed nervously.

“Don’t think I haven’t realised that your schemes and ideas always involve sparing human prisoners from death. It didn’t matter so much before, so I went along with it for a while- with your best interests in mind, of course… but this time…” Dark sighed. “Things are different. As you said, this human is… _different_.”

“Exactly,” Die took a small step forward. “Yes, I’ll admit that my plan does seem to spare her from physical harm for the most part, but you can’t push aside the fact that I’m correct in my reasoning.”

Dark met Die’s determined gaze. “Listen…” Dark paused as if collecting his thoughts. “Demons talk, Die…”

There was a short silence before Dark continued in a soft voice.

“It’s getting out that you’re unusually soft on the humans. I’m doing all I can do defend your loyalty, but some leaders are beginning to question whether or not you’re-”

Die cut him off in exasperation, taking another step forward as he raised his voice.

“She has no reason to be afraid of death with her own stakes in mind, and she will continue to defy and act violently towards all of us- especially you, keep in mind. My method may well seem soft or forgiving, but unless you have a better idea good luck with what you currently have on the table.” Dark continued to hold Die’s gaze as a tense silence filled the room.

“And hey,” Die continued after a moment, recomposing himself. “After it’s all over and done with, you can kill her if you truly want to. But do not think of me as disloyal for presenting peaceable options. Good day to you, my King.” He didn’t wait for Dark to respond, instead turning around and marching his way to the door. Dark sat there silently, watching Die leave as he closed the door to Dark’s office.

Dark sighed, once again left alone.

“God, ye really blew up in there, huh?” Anti commented after Die had shut the office door.

“How long have you been standing there?” Die asked, seemingly not surprised that Anti had been listening in.

Anti stood up from his position of leaning beside the doorway. “Long enough to know that there are other demons questioning ye loyalty to the throne.”

“To the throne? By the sounds of it, there are demons out there who believe I would betray my own race!”

Die began to walk away, Anti following closely behind.

“Well they’ve gotta be outta their goddamn minds,” Anti argued, trying to support his friend.

“Surely.” Die turned into a room that joined off the hallway, which was his office. After walking inside Die threw (Y/n)’s file onto his desk. He decided not to put it away, since he already knew that Dark would want to have a look at it again later.

“What are ye gonna do about it?”

“What _can_ I do?” Die slouched into the chair behind his desk. “If they already think I’m a traitor, why would take my word for- well, _anything_.” Die sighed. “It’s in Dark’s hands.”

“Yeah, but it didn’t really sound like Dark was…” Anti hesitated. “Almost as if he…”

“As if Dark is beginning to believe the accusations himself.” Die finished solemnly.

“What utter fuckin’ bullshit,” Anti muttered angrily. “Sure, big ole _King Darkiplier_ seems to get all of the credit for bringing demonkind out of the shadows, but _who helped that conniving_ _bastard?_ ”

“Now, Anti,” Die started, “Do not forget who the ruler of this land is.” A moment of silence passed. “ _Even if he is an utter bastard at times._ ” Die added quietly.

“No,” Die seemed to scold himself, “I trust Dark to sort this out. The three of us have known each other for far too long for Dark to begin questioning my loyalty. Those dictators across the country are just power-hungry mongrels trying to feed the King into their lies. But Dark is smarter than that,” Die spun his chair so that he was now facing the large window behind the desk.

“Yeah, we’d bloody hope so.” Anti murmured.


	9. The Ridiculous Plan

“What are we going to do, General?” Brandy asked again.

“I told you, I don’t know,” James responded. He sounded almost as if he was out of breath- not that he’d been running recently.

Brandy slammed her hands onto the table. “We have to do _something_!”

“Brandy, I know you feel like this is your fault, but it isn’t.” Reef said.

“If anything, I’d say we’re all partly to blame,” Marcie added in a soft voice. “We all knew the date was special to her. And deep down, we all knew she’d try something like this...” Reef and James nodded solemnly while Brandy continued to pace the room.

“What?” Trevor piped up. “What do you mean? Special how?”

Brandy looked between Reef, Marcie and James before she spoke.

“It was the day that Flare’s… the day that Flare’s entire family was murdered under The King’s order.”

Trevor looked stunned for a moment.

“To the day you met her, three years ago,” James added. “We shouldn’t have taken the risk of assigning her to the mission.”

It went quiet.

“It’s not like there’s a whole lot we _can_ do now,” Reef started somewhat hesitantly. “She’s just going to have to tough it out for a while longer-”

Brandy’s voice raised over Reef’s suddenly.

“ _How_ much longer? How much longer _can she take_? God knows what they’re doing to her! No doubt they’re trying to get information about the rebellion out of her!”

“And we just have to pray that she doesn’t crack,” James said.

Brandy turned her fierce gaze towards him. “Flare leaking information about the rebellion is the _least_ of my worries right now.” Silence filled the room again. “My friend- _our_ friend, is imprisoned by that monster who sits on the throne. Flare is like family to _all_ of us, and the first thing that comes to your mind is the safety of _the rebellion_ over _her’s_?”

“Brandy, you know that’s not what he meant,” Reef tried to defend their general, but Brandy had already begun to storm out of the room.

“You two should go to her,” James said after a moment, dismissing Marcie and Reef. “This whole ordeal is taking a huge toll on Brandy, and she needs her friends by her side.”

Reef and Marcie stood up, saluting their general before rushing after Brandy.

James remained, thinking deeply to himself.

“I understand Brandy’s anger, but I also understand your side of this, too.” Trevor said, and James looked up at him.

“After all; we can’t get her out of there if The King comes knocking on the rebellion’s door.”

James nodded. “Flare was right,” he smiled. “We do need you here.”

Trevor smiled back. “I’m honoured that you think so, General.”

~~~~

Dark stared down at the papers on his desk absentmindedly. All he could think about was Die’s preposterous plan to _‘befriend’_ the human prisoner.

_That is utterly ridiculous,_

Dark told himself again. He stared at the papers a moment longer before grimacing slightly.

 _I don’t think I’m in the mood to sign documents right now_.

Dark stood, putting down his pen and stacking the papers together neatly before setting them to the side of the desk.

He glanced up to the small, framed photo that sat at the edge of his vision. It was a photograph of Dark, Die and Anti standing together in a formal setting.

_I’m still surprised that we were able to convince Anti to wear a suit for the occasion…_

Dark smiled to himself before focusing on Die.

He sighed. _I need to have more faith in him. Would those rulers have his best interests in mind? No. They only want his status and his power._

Dark felt silly for even considering their words at all.

_I wish I could have worded it better when I spoke to him... but surely he knows that they don’t think very highly of him. Most demons wouldn’t if they knew of his affinity towards humans._

Dark turned away from the photograph.

_He means well… why can’t they just see that?_

Dark moved to stand by the window, gazing out at the houses dotted along the rolling hills.

_I… wouldn’t necessarily be where I am today without his help, would I? He is my advisor for a reason…_

_And if the other rulers sense a rift between the three of us, they might take it for weakness and attempt to exploit it. I may be their king, but Satan knows that they all desperately want a way to the throne._

Dark turned back to look at the framed picture.

_We must stay united… And I need to trust Die’s advice._

He walked back to his desk and picked up the photograph, frowning slightly.

“After all…” he concluded aloud, “How bad could one dinner be?”

\----

Die pulled another book from the large shelf in his office, skimming the pages for a moment before determining that this wasn’t the book he was searching for.

Anti had left a while earlier, after their short conversation regarding Dark paying too much mind to the monarchs across the country.

Die was trying to forget about it and push it to the back of his mind, trusting Dark to do what was right.

He put the book he was holding back and went to grab another when he suddenly heard a knock on the door to his office.

“Come in,” he said.

The door opened to reveal Dark.

“Oh- my king,” Die seemed surprised it wasn’t someone else. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“I wanted to speak with you about what you said earlier,” Dark said.

“Of course,” Die started, almost as if he was expecting this conversation. “My sincerest apologies, I shouldn’t have blown up like that- especially to you, my king.” Die bowed for a moment. “I should have respected your wishes, it was unlawful for me to do otherwise.”

Dark walked further into the room.

“No, it was my fault for being so stubborn. I apologise to you.”

Die stared at Dark for a moment. “Does this mean that you..?”

Dark sighed. “Yes, this does mean that I’m willing to try out your _‘method’_ of extracting information from the human.”

Die could hardly contain his excitement, barely holding still. “That’s great, my king,”

“So, how should I go about this?” Dark asked finally.

“I propose you personally invite the human to a dinner,”

“Personally?”

“Yes, you should ask her yourself. And do it tonight.”

“ _Tonight_?” Dark seemed slightly taken aback. “Doesn’t that seem a bit… _soon_?”

“The sooner the better,” Die argued.

“I… suppose,” Dark finally agreed. Die knew this would be difficult for his friend, but was willing to help him with this approach.

“When should I ask the human?”

“Ask her now.”

“Now?”

“Is there an echo in here? Yes, now! The sooner the better. She might be more inclined to attend if she has time to think about it.” Die said.

“I want you to know that I still think this idea is outright absurd,” Dark added.

“I know, but I’m glad you want to at least try and follow through with it.” Die smiled gratefully.

\----

It had been a few hours since Die had visited (Y/n) asking for rebellion information.

_He certainly had a different approach than the King…_

(Y/n) thought to herself. Not long after Die had left she managed to scramble back to the bed; the only place she felt safe, at this point. Deep down (Y/n) knew that the bed really did nothing to protect her, yet she let herself be fooled into a false sense of safety.

_This is no use, I have to get out of here. Before any of them come back._

(Y/n) moved to the end of the bed, watching both wolves carefully as she stood on the ground.

She had learnt that only one of them was a real threat.

Each wolf seemed to have its own personality; one was laid back, mellow and overall the most gentle of the two, the one that Anti seemed to like the most; while the other was cold, calculated and menacing, the that one Anti mentioned doesn’t particularly enjoy his company.

(Y/n) wasn’t afraid to step a little closer to the mellow one, but that didn’t mean she trusted it one bit.

She wandered to the window, not having anywhere else in the room to go to.

The room she was in wasn’t on the ground floor, but rather, about a story above that. (Y/n) moved as close as she could to the window so she could peer down at the ground below.

_Could I make that jump..?_

She thought to herself.

_Or even more pressing, would the wolves follow me out if I did?_

(Y/n) put her hands on the window, looking towards the town.

_Maybe I could outrun them..._

At this point, it was her only option. Even if it meant getting cut up by the glass and maimed by two wolves.

(Y/n) took in a few deep breaths, psyching herself up to bust out of here. An inopportune knock at the door made her heart begin to race.

_Now! I have to go now! Jump! Do it!_

But she stood frozen in place, staring out the window.

(Y/n) turned her head at the sound of the door opening. When she saw the king, her heart began racing even faster.

_I won’t have to worry about jumping if he tosses me out the bloody window anyway!_

“Good afternoon, human.” He said.

**_Be nicer! Address her in a non-objectifying way!_ **

Dark heard Die shouting in his mind. Die was standing outside the door of the room. He thought that Dark might need some… _guidance_ , so this was their best option.

“Uhm, I mean- _commander_ ,” Dark corrected himself.

(Y/n) flinched away from the window, afraid that Dark would know what she was up to.

“I came to…”

**_Apologise._ **

“Apologise,”

It was weird for Dark, being told what to do. But if this was what it took to solidify his trust in Die, he was willing to live through it. Just this once.

“O-oh,” (Y/n) sounded surprised.

“I acted brashly, allowing my temper to… get the better of me,” Dark said. “I do hope that you’ll accept my apology.”

**_Now invite her to dinner._ **

“Perhaps you’d be inclined to join me for… dinner?” Dark asked slowly. Die was surprised that he was doing this well.

“I’m sorry?” (Y/n) began to shake slightly.

Dark went silent for a moment before Die realised he was waiting to be prompted.

**_As part of your apology, you’re inviting her to dinner._ **

“It’s part of the apology,” Dark stated suddenly.

“But… Die told me that you were halting my rations?”

Dark went quiet again.

 ** _Sorry, I did do that. I was trying to get her to confess information._** Die’s thoughts sounded rushed and apologetic in Dark’s mind. Dark tried his best to keep himself composed, even though this wasn’t exactly going as planned.

“Yes, well, as I said earlier it was me allowing my temper to get the better of me. I acted crudely in my anger.”

 ** _Nice save,_** Die complimented.

 _No thanks to you,_ Dark thought to himself. Lucky for him Die wasn’t able to read thoughts.

Silence filled the room so Dark decided to butt in with, “So? What do you say?”

(Y/n) looked up in bewilderment as if she hadn’t been paying attention. Dark suppressed a sigh.

“Will I see you at dinner?”

(Y/n) looked as if she were thinking.

“On one condition,” (Y/n) spoke finally.

Dark seemed slightly taken aback by this. “A… condition?” he had convinced himself that she wouldn’t refuse.

 _Surely it can’t be anything too unmanageable,_ he reassured himself.

 ** _Be polite about it._** Die reminded him.

“Um... of course, what condition might that be?”

“Antisepticeye will accompany me to the dinner you have arranged,” she sounded a little bit unsure, uneasy, even.

“I beg your pardon?” it was Dark’s turn to be bewildered.

“Antisepticeye will accompany me to the dinner.” She repeated, more confidently this time.

Dark was speechless.

_Him? Of all people?_

Dark was good friends with Anti, of course, and he had nothing against him- Dark just didn’t think (Y/n) would be the type to get along with Anti.

**_I think you should agree, the plan can still work this way. At least she still wants to go._ **

Part of Dark wished that she didn’t want to go at all.

“I… suppose that is acceptable,” Dark said, and (Y/n) visibly relaxed.

“I’ll have someone come and collect you when it’s time.” Dark turned to leave, closing the door behind him.

(Y/n)’s mind was still reeling from the whole interaction. The last time she’d spoken to Darkiplier, he was constantly trying to manipulate and toy with her- eventually, he almost killed her! And that was only this morning! But now, when she had spoken to him, it was like he were a whole different person.

She glanced back to the window.

_I could still break out if I tried._

(Y/n) then turned her gaze to the wolves, both of whom were staring back at her.

_…Maybe I’ll see what he has to say,_

She finally decided.

(Y/n) ended up sitting by the window while she waited. She stared out, admiring the view. She’d never seen so much of the town at once before.

Sometime during her waiting, (Y/n) noticed movement from the corner of her eye and realised it was one of the wolves. It had stood up and begun timidly making its way over to (Y/n), much to her dismay.

“Ah… what do you want, dog...?!” (Y/n) muttered when the wolf was standing inches from her. She tried to scoot away as discreetly as she could but the wolf only took a few more steps forward.

Upon closer examination, (Y/n) determined that this was at least the ‘nice’ wolf.

She continued to stare at it before the wolf began to sniff (Y/n)’s arm, making her even more nervous. Eventually, the wolf nosed its way under (Y/n)’s arm, flopping down beside her once her arm was draped over it.

(Y/n) froze up completely, terrified that if she moved it would be the last thing she did.

The wolf huffed, making (Y/n) jump.

“I-I guess you’re not so bad,” (Y/n) whispered, lightly petting the wolf’s fur. It snuggled into (Y/n) further, but this time she didn’t seem as tense about it.

“Do you have a name?” she asked no one in particular.

“I suppose Anti would have mentioned it if you did.” (Y/n) let out a shaky sigh, continuing to run her fingers through the wolf’s fur.

“What if I call you… Sparky…?” she looked to the other wolf that was still sitting at its post beside the bed. “And you can be… Howl.” The other wolf almost seemed to scowl at (Y/n).

_What can I say, I’m not exactly the best with names._

She continued petting Sparky and staring around the room absentmindedly, eventually falling into a nap.


	10. The Dinner

“Wakey wakey, Flare!” the sound of Anti’s loud voice jolted (Y/n) out of her sleep, Sparky too.  
“What, is it time for dinner already?” (Y/n) yawned.  
“What? No! Dark sent me to help you get ready!”  
(Y/n) gave Anti a puzzled look. “To what?”  
He reached forward and grabbed her arm, jerking it upwards hard enough for her to now be standing. “Ow! Watch it!” she hissed, rubbing her shoulder.  
“There’s no time to waste, human, you have to start preparing!”  
“I am prepared, what else am I supposed to do to get ready?”  
Anti looked her up and down quickly. “In those ratty clothes? How long have you even been wearing them for?”  
(Y/n) felt a stab of embarrassment at Anti’s comment. “Well… what am I supposed to wear?” she asked somewhat defensively.   
Anti walked over to the closet and flung it open, revealing that it was actually a walk-in robe.  
(Y/n) walked closer, noticing the countless clothing items that lined the walls inside. But not just clothes; shoes and accessories, too.  
“How do I know any of it will fit?” (Y/n) gave Anti a doubtful look.  
“It will, trust me.” She gave him another look and he sighed. “Trust me,” Anti said again. He shoved her inside before she could argue, slamming the door closed behind her.  
(Y/n) walked towards one of the built-in clothing racks, beginning to shuffle through the various articles of clothing.  
“Do I have to wear anything in particular?” She called out, hoping Anti was still standing outside the door. (Y/n) had thought he’d left until she heard him respond a few moments later.  
“Nah, I don’t think so. Just wear something… um, nice? Formal, maybe?”  
“Why do you sound so unsure?”  
“Formal settings aren’t really my thing,” Anti replied.  
“And why did the king send you to get me ready, again?”  
“Because you invited me as your plus one!”  
(Y/n) went quiet.  
“I can’t believe I have to go to a stupid dinner now,” She heard him mutter.  
“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” (Y/n) felt bad for making Anti tag along without having asked him first. Truthfully, half the reason she asked for him to come at all was that she felt a lot safer with someone else in the room, rather than her being purely alone with the king.  
“What? Nah, I’ll come along for the food. The food served at dinners is always the best!”  
(Y/n) ended up pulling a black dress from the clothing rack, moving to the mirror and holding the dress in front of herself to see what it might look like when she wore it.  
The top half of the dress was strapless with puffy sleeves, absolutely covered in black sparkly sequins and glitter. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t solid glitter and sequins, but rather, black fabric with intricate floral sequin patterns embroidered onto it.  
The bottom half of the dress was rather short, reaching (Y/n)’s knees, and made out of frilly black fabric.  
“I think I found what I want to wear,” (Y/n) called out to Anti, reaching down to grab a pair of black flats.  
“Nice. You can come out and have a shower or whatever you want to do, I’ll be back soon to take you to the dining hall.”  
(Y/n) walked to the door of the robe and opened it, looking around the room to see that Anti had disappeared.   
She decided to take Anti’s advice and have a quick shower, changing into her chosen outfit for the dinner after she was done. (Y/n) looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, doing her best to look presentable- she might have hated being trapped there, and hated even more being forced to have dinner with the king, but she’d be damned if she wasn’t going to look stunning while she did.  
(Y/n) turned when she heard the door to the main room open, poking her head out of the bathroom to see that it was Anti.  
“You clean up nice, human.” He commented.  
“I thought you were going to stop calling me that?” (Y/n) said, walking out of the bathroom.   
Anti shrugged. “It’s more of a nickname now than a patronising insult.”  
“Why aren’t you wearing anything formal?” (Y/n) asked. Anti looked down at his plain shirt and jeans.   
“I don’t really get dressed up for things,” he responded. “Do I look like the type of person who’d wear a suit?”  
(Y/n) realised he had a point.  
“So, are we going to this stupid dinner or what?” Anti said, bringing (Y/n) out of her thoughts.  
She nodded, and Anti reached forward and grabbed her arm. Before (Y/n) could say anything they were suddenly engulfed in a cloud of mist, and reality almost seemed to glitch out of existence for a second. There was a brief moment where everything went black, although (Y/n) could still see Anti beside her clear as day.  
After what felt like an eternity, the mist began to slowly return along with the room around Anti and (Y/n). Except that, she noticed, the room was different now. Or more so, they were now in a different room.  
A large table sat at the centre of the room, draped in a black tablecloth and dotted with shiny metal candelabras that had intricate patterns etched into them.  
At the head of the table sat Dark, and although the table was long, there were two dinner sets positioned across from each other slightly up the table from where Dark was sitting.  
“Welcome,” his voice echoed around the empty room, making (Y/n) startle slightly. “I was beginning to think you’d never show up.”   
Anti led the way in and (Y/n) followed closely behind. She took a seat in the chair to Dark’s right while Anti walked around the table to sit at Dark’s left, across from (Y/n).  
Much like (Y/n) had first thought, she was far less on edge with Anti here. She wanted to come across as strong and confident to the King, minimalizing any sense of weakness about herself even if she truly was unsettled by Dark’s presence.  
“Anti, I see that you barely bothered to dress yourself up at all,” Dark commented.   
“Says you, you’re still wearing the same suit you always do,” Anti retorted.  
(Y/n) sat there uncomfortably, almost feeling like a third wheel to the whole situation. Dark turned to her suddenly, staring into (Y/n)’s eyes.  
“Once again, I can’t express how apologetic I am about the whole ‘incident’ that occurred this morning, my temper just tends to get the best of me sometimes.” though his tone sounded sincere, Dark’s expression was emotionless.   
Suddenly the corners of his mouth twitched up into an unnatural looking smile, making (Y/n) shudder.  
Does he seriously smile so rarely that he’s forgotten how to do it altogether?  
She thought to herself uneasily.   
(Y/n) noticed that Anti had furrowed his brow, taking on a confused expression. “Why are you acting so weird?” he asked. Dark’s face lost its only shred of emotion as he turned to look at Anti.  
“Whatever do you mean?”  
Anti had opened his mouth to explain when suddenly the sound of the dining room doors opening caught everyone’s attention.  
“Ah, the food has arrived,” Dark exclaimed in a gleeful tone.  
Anti and (Y/n) shared another confused look. Two servants scurried over, one of them placing down everyone’s meals while the other poured water from a jug into everyone’s glasses.   
“Thank you,” Dark seemed to say through gritted teeth as if it pained him to express such a thing to a human.  
The servant pouring drinks became stunned for a moment, causing her to overfill (Y/n)’s glass and partially soak the tablecloth with water.  
“S-sincerest apologies, my king,” She began frantically, bowing before beginning to hastily clean up the mess.  
“Don’t fret over it… we all make mistakes…” Dark said quietly.  
It almost scared (Y/n) how visible it became that Dark was holding back from snapping at the servant. She could hardly believe the split between his somewhat warm tone of voice and his cold expression.  
The two servants hurried away as soon as the mess was dealt with, and part of (Y/n) wished she could have scampered away with them, away from this weird and terribly awkward dinner. By the looks of it, Anti felt the same way.  
(Y/n) tried to take her mind off of the strangeness by turning to the plate in front of her. On it sat a rather large portion of steak, sided by an assortment of brightly coloured vegetables and a scoop of mashed potato.  
I can’t remember the last time I had steak,  
She thought to herself.  
Hell, I can’t even remember the last time I had a proper meal.  
Mealtimes at the rebellion weren’t exactly classy. It was hard to purchase good food on a regular day, let alone trying to purchase good food as an outlawed group of vigilantes. The rebellion was lucky if they could serve up three meals a day, forget any nutritional value involved.  
The delicious smell emanating from the dish eventually got (Y/n) to cave as she picked up her knife and fork and began to start eating.  
Truthfully, this was the best food she had ever tasted in her entire life. (Y/n) tried her hardest to not seem impolite as she began to shovel more food into her mouth.  
Although the silence that overcame the table seemed comfortable at first, only ever filled with the occasional clinking of cutlery against a plate, the quiet eventually became awkward. It hung in the air, thick as fog on a winter morning.  
“How have you been feeling?” Dark asked suddenly, and (Y/n) stopped eating, lowering her fork.   
What did he just ask her?  
“Um…” (Y/n) trailed off. “As good as I can be, considering I’m being held captive…” she responded almost as if it were a stupid question.  
“Nothing’s been troubling you?” he continued as if he hadn’t heard her.   
“Troubling me…?” she repeated quietly.   
What the hell is going on?  
(Y/n) looked over to Anti to see that he was also giving Dark a bewildered look, although Dark was still facing (Y/n).  
“Yes, I assume you’re doing well, but I thought that I’d ask just to be sure-”  
(Y/n) cut him off as she stood up from her seat, slamming her knife and fork onto the table as she did so.  
“What’s your deal?!” she demanded, her voice raised.   
“I’m sorry-?”  
“What kind of thing is that to ask the person you’re keeping held prisoner? Especially after you were ready to rip my head off mere hours ago!”  
Dark went quiet for a moment. “Perhaps you should take a seat, you aren’t thinking straight-”  
“No!” (Y/n) exclaimed. “You’re acting so strangely, and I want to know why.”  
“Strangely? I… always act like this.” Dark responded slowly.  
“Oh, please.” (Y/n) scoffed. “If you were this polite and kind all the time then there wouldn’t be a rebellion trying to overthrow you!”  
The room went quiet.  
“Darkiplier isn’t kind or compassionate in the slightest! And if you really think that you can fool me into thinking otherwise then you’re out of your goddamn mind!” she barked.  
“I know that this dinner was another elaborate ruse to get me to confess information, but if you honestly think I’m dumb enough to fall for your phony nice-guy act then you’re more ignorant than I thought!”   
(Y/n) turned to Anti, who had slowly slumped down further and further into his chair throughout the time that she had been shouting.  
“Antisepticeye, please take me back to my room.” She said sternly, and Anti wasn’t so sure that she was going to take ‘no’ for an answer.   
He glanced over to Dark as he sat up, reaching his arm across the table for (Y/n) to take.  
“Sorry, boss,” Anti said quietly before (Y/n) grabbed his hand, and he blurred them both away.   
When they arrived back in the guest room (Y/n) stormed into the wardrobe and slammed the door shut behind her. She picked up her old clothes, about to change into them when she noticed that it seemed they had been washed.   
Pushing the thought away she began to change angrily.   
This is ridiculous.  
She thought.  
I’m sick of this, I really am. Does he think I’m a child?   
She finished changing and threw the dress on a chair in the wardrobe.   
What a waste of time!  
(Y/n) sighed, opening the door to the walk-in robe and looking around the guest room.  
Once again, Anti had disappeared, and the wolves had returned. (Y/n) slunk her way towards the bed and flopped down onto it. The dinner had exhausted her, even though in reality she hadn’t been there for all that long. She fell right asleep without too much thought about it.  
\----  
God, what a disaster.  
Anti thought to himself as he walked down one of the long halls in the castle. He made his way towards Dark’s office, determined to find out what the hell was going on. Swinging the door open, Anti startled at the sight of the nearly-packed room.  
There was a camera set up in front of Dark’s desk, several demons moving around the room to continue setting up things like lighting and sound equipment.  
Dark stood off to the side, a short woman standing up on a stool so that she could do his makeup.  
“What the hell is all this?” Anti asked as he made his way over to Dark, ducking out of the way as someone walked past with a light stand on their shoulder.  
“If I’m getting nowhere with the girl, I may as well put some pressure on the rebellion to offer something up for her, don’t you think?” Dark said.   
“Yeah, that’s what I was gonna ask ye about,” Anti continued. Dark waved the makeup woman away and she climbed off her stool, leaving Dark and Anti alone for the most part.  
“What the fuck is up with you?” Anti asked in a hushed tone. Dark only stared back at him with tired eyes. “What’s with this Mr Nice-Guy act?”  
“It was Die’s idea,” Dark sighed, and Anti rolled his eyes. “It’s exhausting for me, being that nice to humans. Especially for extended periods of time.”  
“The dinner lasted ten minutes!”  
“Exactly, but if this is what it takes to prove my trust in Die, I suppose I’ll have to bear with it for a little longer.”  
Dark turned and began to walk away, Anti following quickly after.  
“Look, I love Die and his crazy ideas as much as the next guy, but surely you’re not gonna put yerself through this?”  
“He’s my advisor, isn’t he?” Dark said.  
“I know, but…” Anti had a hard time placing the words. “Die isn’t exactly great with this kinda stuff. And I don’t know about you, but I’d say it’s pretty fuckin’ obvious that the human isn’t any happier with you when you act like that.”  
Dark glanced at Anti before fixing his tie.  
“And don’t ye think that demons are gonna get suspicious with how nice yer actin’ towards the humans?”  
“Oh, please,” Dark said, taking a seat behind his desk. “I only have to keep the act up when the girl is around.”  
“Act?” Anti asked confusedly. “What act? That was a hot mess!”  
Dark scoffed. “Surely it wasn’t that terrible.”  
“I was contemplating putting you out of your misery, that’s how pained ye looked!” Anti exclaimed.  
“I’m afraid you’ll have to go now, Anti, or at least step out of frame. We’re about to start broadcasting.”  
Anti huffed, rolling his eyes before blurring away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So the influx of chapters was due to the fact that I'm cross-posting this story from my Wattpad account! (under the same username as I use here). My regular updating schedule is every two weeks, so expect an update on the 27th :)


	11. The Garden

James paced his office, wringing his hands as he thought. These past few days had been extremely stressful for him, especially with the added pressure from the board.

The rebellion was independent, yes, but it was overshadowed by a ‘board of directors’ of sorts. They certainly didn’t fund the rebellion, no- they were more like curators of the whole operation. The board was supposed to be an unbiased group of individuals who made decisions on behalf of the rebellion and signed off on any important missions. _Supposed_ to be.

They were in an uproar over Flare’s capture, and James’ position was on the line because of it. The board believed that he was to blame. They _always_ did. The board didn’t much like the general, and nearly everyone knew that they had their own separate agenda.

James needed to figure out a way to keep them at bay, at least until he could fathom a way to get Flare back safely.

The door to the office flung open suddenly, making James jump.

“General,” Reef huffed, “General, I-”

“Dammit, Reef! What have I told you about knocking?!”

“I’m sorry, General,” Reef finally caught his breath. “But something really important is happening.”

Before James could inquire further Reef added, “It’s the King, there’s a video-feed transmitting straight from the castle!”

James’ eyes widened. “We haven’t had a broadcast in months!”

“We think it might have something to do with Flare, sir-”

“Let’s go!” James interrupted him. “There’s no time to talk, we have no way of knowing anything about that telecast standing here!”

By the time Reef and James had made it to the screen room- a large room in the rebellion base where teams monitored communications and newscasts- a large image of the King was displayed on all screens.

Every inch of the room was covered in displays from all walks of technology; from tiny retro computer monitors to large TV screens; every surface presenting the same image in varying sizes, all of them moving in unison and synced with the same audio.

“Good evening, my subjects,” The King spoke.

“How long has this been live?” James turned to one of the many technicians in the room.

“Only a few seconds, sir,” she replied.

“And good evening to the rebellion. My has it been a turbulent past few days for the both of us.” Dark was sitting behind his desk, his hands placed neatly on the flat surface in front of him.

“You might have received the prisoners from my dungeon, but I still hold captive someone I’d consider _very_ important to you. Your dear old Commander Flare.” He tilted his head to the side slightly. “I wonder what lengths you’ll go to just to get her back? Well, that’s exactly what I wanted to address you about.”

Dark straightened, standing from his chair as the camera panned out to keep him in frame. He walked around to the front of his desk, leaning back against it.

“I propose that _you_ decide that. What do you think is worth the life of your pathetic companion? The surrender of half your troops? The location of your establishment? Perhaps even your general?” small gasps rang out through the room as everyone turned their eyes to James.

“Rebellion plans, someone else’s life…” Dark continued, waving his hand. “Whatever you see fit to be exchanged for your commander, you can decide. You have five days to choose, so choose wisely.” More gasps rang out, followed by hushed conversation. Everyone went silent when Dark began to speak again.

“On the fifth day you will be granted access to the castle for the final negotiation; but if no one shows up, or if I find your offer inadequate, rest assured I’ll execute your commander myself. That is all, enjoy your five days and your, pitiful, pitiful lives.”

The screens turned black all at once and the room was deadly silent.

“Five days?” Reef mumbled, still turned towards one of the screens. “What could we possibly offer for Flare that won’t get us all killed anyway?”

_My thoughts exactly…_ James pondered inwardly. He didn’t dare speak it aloud, the rebellion needed a strong leader who at least _seemed_ sure of himself.

“We’ll figure this out,” James finally responded, putting a reassuring hand on Reef’s shoulder. “And we’ll get Flare back.”

\----

(Y/n) slowly woke to the light coming in from the window. She was still exhausted after her long day previous but forced herself to get up nonetheless.

She sat up slowly, reminiscing on yesterday’s events.

The dinner. The confrontation. The shouting. The impromptu departure.

_I have to get out of here._

And so (Y/n) had decided.

No more beating around the bush. No more waiting. No more dawdling. She had to get out of here and back to the rebellion. She felt that now more than ever- this place was insane, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she’d last within these walls.

_I only have one shot at this, and I have to make it count._

She glanced between Sparky and Howl. They were both fast asleep on either side of the bed.

_Here goes nothing…_

(Y/n) sat up on her haunches, leaning forward and keeping an eye on Howl in particular. She began drawing in deep breaths, psyching herself up and getting her adrenaline pumping.

_Now!_

(Y/n) shot forward suddenly, flying off the bed and landing a few feet away. She heard the wolves stir but didn’t stop to look. Instead, she sprinted towards the door as fast as her legs could carry her, flinging it open just in time to see Howl bounding towards her; teeth bared as he snarled loudly.

“Sorry!” (Y/n) called as she slammed the door shut, hearing a loud _thud_ as Howl presumably hit the door.

(Y/n) stood there panting for a moment, staring at the door. She suddenly heard scratching against the wood followed by loud growling and yapping.

_I need to go before somebody hears them!_

She began sprinting down the hall, her heart still pounding at the thought of the wolves breaking out of the guest bedroom to chase after her. All she could imagine was their sharp white teeth piercing and tearing at her skin as she squirmed underneath them, too weak and feeble to escape.

(Y/n) shook the thought away.

_I have to focus on getting out of here,_ she told herself.

Racing down the stairs, she noticed the familiarity of the hall.

_Yes! The exit is near here, I know it!_

Soon enough the entrance to the castle was in sight, and (Y/n) felt a rush of relief. The relief was short-lasting, though, as she heard a loud barking behind her.

She stopped in her tracks and turned slowly to see that both Howl and Sparky were standing at the other end of the hall. One of them began to yowl, loudly, and (Y/n) was filled with a sense of panic once more.

_How did they get out!?_

They were pretty far away, but (Y/n) didn’t doubt that they could run like all hell and she didn’t want to take the chance. Spinning around quickly without looking where she was going, (Y/n) tried to run in the opposite direction to the wolves only to slam into something and fall over.

Looking up quickly (Y/n) realised Anti was standing above her. He peered down at her with an annoyed look on his face, glancing up to the approaching wolves for a moment before returning his gaze to (Y/n).

“Now what do you think _you’re_ doin’?” he asked her slowly. “Shouldn’t you be _in your room_?”

“I-I-” She tried to utter out some kind of response, but the impending arrival of the wolves coupled with being caught by Anti had (Y/n)’s tongue in a twist as her heart pounded almost painfully in her chest.

“Don’t tell me you were tryin’ to _escape-_ ” Anti had begun again, only to be cut off by a second voice.

“Anti?”

Anti turned around to see who it was while (Y/n) peered around him to catch a glimpse of whoever had called out.

“Dark? What do ye want?”

(Y/n) felt her skin prickle and a shiver went down her spine.

“What is the meaning of this?” Dark noticed (Y/n) on the ground in front of Anti, his eyes narrowing slightly. “And what is _she_ doing out of her room?” his voice was cold, and (Y/n) already began to notice Dark’s outline beginning to crack.

Not even a moment later Howl and Sparky arrived behind (Y/n), the both of them panting and looking to Dark- seemingly for further instructions.

“My patience is wearing thin with you, girl,” Dark said in a low voice, and (Y/n) began to hear faint static as both wolves began to growl and snarl, edging slightly closer to her.

“I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but now isn’t exactly the best time for a half-hearted escape attempt,” he snapped, still glowering down at her.

“Cool it, edgelord, I’m the one who brought her down here,” Anti said, and (Y/n) looked up at him with scared, round eyes.

“What?” Dark hissed. “Anti, how dare you-”

“Chill, she just wanted some fresh air. You would too if you’d spent the past three days cooped up in a room with these two stinkers.” Anti threw a thumb back to Sparky and Howl, both of whom had calmed down ever so slightly.

Dark’s demeanour began to compose, and he looked off to the side before staring down at (Y/n) again, then back up to Anti, meeting his eyes.

“So be it, do what you will.” Dark muttered quietly, stalking off in the opposite direction.

(Y/n) breathed a sigh of relief, glad to have avoided another negative interaction with Dark.

Anti put his hand out and (Y/n) looked at it. “Well? Do you want me to help you up or not, flea-bag?” she grabbed his hand quickly and Anti hauled her off the ground.

“Thanks,” she said bashfully, dusting herself off.

“You _better_ be thankful,” Anti said. “I stuck me bloody neck out for you, human. Now I better not catch ye escaping again.” His tone sounded stern, but any sense of seriousness vanished when he reached out and tussled (Y/n)’s hair.

“Try harder to not to get killed by Dark. I’m becoming incredibly fond of you, lass, and I’d hate to see ye get crushed like a tin can.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“What?”

“You being fond of me?” (Y/n) asked.

Anti was quiet for a moment. “No, not for me. That’s why I still fuckin’ hate yer guts.” (Y/n) tried to hold back a sheepish giggle, but her efforts were futile. Anti gave her a lopsided grin, followed by a small chuckle.

“Ye owe me one, human.”

“I know I do.” (Y/n) responded. “But for now, where do you want to go?”

Anti gave her a confused look.

“I thought you were _‘taking me out for some fresh air’_?” Anti scoffed, rolling his eyes at her. “You better make your lie at least believable, otherwise Darkiplier will see right through it!” She argued, although they both knew that she wasn’t being entirely serious.

“If it’s fresh air you want, then it’s the gardens yer lookin’ for. Besides,” Anti looked down the hallway as he continued. “I think you’d be the type to like flowers and stuff.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?!” (Y/n) exclaimed as he began to walk away.

“Are you coming or what?” Anti called back, and she rushed to catch up to him for fear that Dark might return.

“Wait… where did the wolves go?” (Y/n) asked suddenly, looking around anxiously for them. “They were here just a second ago!”

“Beats me,” Anti said. “They do it all the time. It’s kinda weird, but I don’t pay too much mind to it.”

“Clearly…” she muttered under her breath.

(Y/n) noticed a group of guards approaching, marching in unison through the hall in neat lines. The sound of all their armour clanging as they moved rung through the long hall and (Y/n) involuntarily crept herself closer to Anti.

Just as she thought they’d all pass by without any trouble, someone who looked to be the head guard stopped, the rest of the guards also stopping uniformly behind him.

“Antisepticeye, sir.” The head guard saluted.

“What do you want?” Anti sounded annoyed- then again, he always sounded annoyed.

“Sir, did you want us to send out another unit to search for the rebellion prisoners?”

Anti glanced back to (Y/n) for a moment. “No, we’ve searched enough. They’re long gone by now.”

Anti’s small motion seemed to alert the head guard of (Y/n)’s presence.

“Did you want me to escort this prisoner back to a cell?” he asked.

“She’s fine with me.” Anti said shortly, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Are you sure, sir? Rather than waste your own time with this human it would be more than appropriate for me to-”

“Do you have cotton in yer ears? I said fuck off!” The guard seemed slightly taken aback by this.

“Why are ye still standing here?” Anti said after a moment, tapping his foot on the ground impatiently. The head guard looked a little bit frantic as he saluted, walking hurriedly away with his assembly of troops trailing behind.

“Man, they seem pretty scared of you,” (Y/n) said after a moment, watching them walk out of sight.

“I’d like to think of it more as respect,” Anti said as he began walking again. (Y/n) made sure to keep pace with him.

“God, they’re so annoying,” he muttered a few moments later.

“Hm?”

Anti glanced over to her. “It’s fun being in charge of the royal guard and all, but they’re pretty stupid. A bunch of good fer nothin’ meatheads.”

“All muscle and no brains by the sounds of it,” (Y/n) said quietly.

“Exactly.”

Anti turned away from the main hall suddenly, into a small corridor (Y/n) hadn’t noticed before. Unlike the main hallway the corridor was undecorated, the grey stone walls bare and plain as they stretched up to the tall ceiling. Pretty impractical, actually.

(Y/n) noticed that Anti had stopped walking, turning around to face her. “We’re here,” he said. Anti put his back to the wall and gestured for (Y/n) to walk past him.

There was barely enough room in the corridor for her to squeeze past without touching him, but somehow she managed. Almost tripping over as she walked from the corridor out into the open air, (Y/n) gawked at the sight before her.

“Geez, been walkin’ long?” Anti tried to joke, but he noticed that (Y/n) was occupied with staring around the garden in amazement. “See, I told you ye’d like it!” he said.

The garden seemed cut off from the rest of the castle grounds, and to be frank (Y/n) had no idea that it even existed until now.

There were giant bushes of lush red and black roses, some of them as big as her hand- if not bigger. There were hedges cut neatly into lines, following a uniform design of some sort. There were lilies, carnations, lavender- and plants (Y/n) had never even seen before! The garden was so vibrant with colour that she almost didn’t believe it was real; she’d never seen so much colour in her entire life.

“It’s… so beautiful,” (Y/n) said slowly, almost in disbelief.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Anti put his hands into his pockets. He seemed bored. “Flowers aren’t really my thing. The other two seem to like ‘em, though.”

(Y/n) turned to look at him. “PewDie and Darkiplier?” Anti nodded.

“Dark, more-so. That’s why there’s so many fuckin’ roses. He loves ‘em.” (Y/n) turned back to the flourishing garden. “Makes enough sense; of course he’d like the most basic bitch fuckin’ plant in the book,” Anti muttered.

“Do you really not like the garden?” (Y/n) asked, walking forward to look at some of the flowers more closely. Anti followed behind her.

“It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that it’s so _boring_ ,” he explained.

“I guess so.” (Y/n) replied softly, reaching out to touch one of the roses’ velvety petals.

“Hey,” Anti said after a moment. “What if you stay here while I go do somethin’ real quick?”

(Y/n) turned her head to look at him, pulling herself away from the roses. “Uh, sure. I guess so.”

Anti walked back to the corridor and disappeared into it. (Y/n) watched for a second longer before turning back to the roses, delicately moving her hand towards one of them. The colour was such a deep and vibrant red, she would have believed it had been painted on if you told her.

“Ow!” (Y/n) drew back suddenly, having pricked herself on one of the thorns. She put the cut in her mouth.

_Stupid roses_ , she thought to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Merry Christmas y'all, I thought I'd upload this chapter a couple of days early as a small Christmas gift from me to you! Hope you're all liking the story so far, too! :^) ♡♡


	12. The Letter

Dark dipped his pen into the inkpot placed delicately at the top of his desk, resuming the sentence he had been writing on the page of a small journal; it was a plain leather-bound book with several wads of crisp, lined paper tucked neatly inside, not a single page out of place.

Anti blurred into the room suddenly, and Dark looked up from his writing.

“Anti, why can you never knock?” he asked in an exasperated tone.

“Sorry, I just always forget to I guess.” Anti noticed the small book on Dark’s desk. “What’s that, your diary or somethin’?” he leaned forward to get a better look at it but Dark closed the book over.

“That’s none of your concern. What did you want to speak to me about?”

Anti straightened up, rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s uh… about the human,” he started, looking off to the side.

Dark tightened the grip he had on the pen in his hand, and Anti almost thought it would break in two.

“If you’re here to inform me that she has escaped then you can see yourself out before I rip you to shreds myself,” Anti could see how much effort it was taking Dark not to snap at him.

“What? No, the lass hasn’t escaped. You think I’m that terrible at me job?” Anti added indignantly. “I came to talk to you because…” he trailed off.

Dark took a deep breath to calm himself, placing the pen on his desk. “Because?”

“Because I have a… _proposition_ for you,” Anti concluded confidently.

Dark sighed. “I’ve had about enough of people trying to tell me how to act towards that menace,” he said. “If your next statement is anything along those lines then I implore you to shut up.” Dark sounded tired, rubbing his eyes.

“No, of course not! Nothin’ like that!” Anti said.

“Are you sure?” Dark looked up at him.

“ _Well_ …” Anti looked off to the side again.

“Honestly, Anti, now is not the time.” Dark stood from his chair, grabbing the notebook off his desk as he walked to the door. “Pester me any other time you wish, but not now.”

“I guess it’s not that important, but that’s why I thought I’d tell you now! So that you’d be able to mull over it for a while…”

“Anti, please,” Dark said again. “I truly do not have time for this.”

“So ye want to hear Die out but not me? That’d be right,” Anti said, becoming frustrated.

“Anti,” Dark stopped walking, turning to face his friend. “You know that’s not what I meant,”

“No, no, by all means, go and do whatever you need to, it’s _clearly_ more important than me,” Anti said.

Dark sighed again. “I’ve written a response to the other rulers.” He said.

“What?” Anti dropped his petty attitude. “What did you say to them?”

“I told them…” Dark paused. “…that if they want to question Die’s loyalty to the kingdom, then they’re effectively questioning mine. I said that there would be no more talk of Die’s behaviour under my rule and that I was perfectly fine determining his intentions myself.”

“Holy shit…” Anti breathed. “What did they say?”

Dark shook his head. “What _can_ they say? If they dare question my word they know it won’t be good for them- _any_ of them. So hopefully that quiets them for a while. At least until I can figure something more permanent out.”

“Like what?” Anti asked.

“I’m not sure yet.”

The room fell silent.

“And Anti,” Dark started again, “I want you to know that I would never dare hold Die in higher regard than you- I trust you both with my life, and I don’t wish to be on bad terms with either of you. After all…” Dark paused. “You are my closest friends.”

Anti nodded. “I know.”

“What did you want to _‘propose’_ , anyway?” Dark asked.

“Oh,” Anti seemed caught off-guard by this. “It doesn’t matter, honestly. It can wait for another time. You look beat, anyway. You should get some sleep,” He sounded nervous, which was very unlike Anti.

“No, really, I would like to know.” Anti became a little bashful.

“I was wondering if, y’know… you’d let the lass free-roam a little? To keep herself occupied? I just figured she’d be less likely to want to escape, seein’ as she’d have somethin’ to do…” Anti kicked the carpet with his shoe, putting his hands into his pockets. “Maybe she’d stop bein’ such a prick then.”

Dark fiddled with the cover of the leather journal in his hands as he thought.

“I don’t think that would be the best idea, Anti. Do you know how unpredictable this human is? The lengths she’s gone to? It would be unwise to leave her alone for too long.”

“She’s alone right now,” Anti said. “In the garden. I left her there by herself while I came to talk to you.”

Dark’s expression became confused. “What?” Anti nodded.

“I left her in the garden by herself. We can go see her if you don’t believe me.” Anti grabbed Dark’s arm, assuming he was too tired to teleport, and blurred them away.

When the world reappeared around them were in the garden, hidden behind a few large hedges and shrubs.

“Look, there she is now.” Anti pointed through the leaves and sure enough, there she was; (Y/n) was sitting in front of a bush of lavender, admiring the colourful butterflies that were swarming it.

“She hasn’t tried to escape, now has she?” Anti said.

“No, but that doesn’t make me any more pleased that you left her unattended without my permission.” Dark side-eyed him.

Anti realised had picked a good time to confront Dark, as he was far too tired to truly get upset over anything.

“So what if you let her roam the castle?” Anti said. “Just the castle, and maybe the garden, with the supervision of Die, you, the pups or me.”

Dark turned to look at him. “They aren’t _pups_ , Anti. They’re fully matured wolves-”

“Oh, whatever,” Anti exclaimed in a loud whisper. “Do you think it’s a good idea or not?”

“Anti?” (Y/n) called out suddenly, standing up from her spot and brushing off her knees. “Is that you?”

“Think about it all ye want, and in the end, you don’t have to say yes.” Anti finished before jumping out from behind the shrub.

“Sure is, lass,” he said as he made his way over to (Y/n). “Have ye got enough fresh air, yet? I think my allergies are startin’ to act up from all this pollen.”

“Do demons have allergies?” she asked.

“Fuck do I know,” Anti said. “I just want to get out of here.” (Y/n) laughed and they made their way towards the corridor that led back into the castle.

\----

“Master PewDie, Sir,” a maid hollered from outside the door to Die’s office. “I have some letters addressed to The King. They arrived this morning.”

“Yes, of course,” Die looked up from his desk. “Come right in.”

The door opened to reveal a meek-looking human maid with long dark hair. She walked up to the desk and handed the stack of papers to Die.

“Thank you, Clarice.” He said, taking the papers from her hands. She curtsied respectfully before leaving the room.

Die began shuffling through the letters, all of them addressed to Dark. Die often got Dark’s mail delivered to him, you see, as the human maids and servants were too fearful to deliver it to Dark directly. So over time, it became another job for Die as advisor to the throne; sorting through Dark’s mail.

Every envelope seemed normal enough- none urgent, which was good. Die could deliver these to Dark later.

As he shuffled through the last few envelopes, Die stopped. He pulled out a particular envelope from the stack of letters.

_This handwriting…_

He ran his fingertips over the ink gently.

_No, it can’t be…_

Die frantically searched for a letter-opener, throwing open every draw to his desk before he found one. He nearly tore open the envelope, ripping the letter out and unfolding it quickly. As he scanned the writing his eyes continued to widen anxiously with every paragraph.

“Oh no,” he breathed. “No, no, no… This can’t be true!”

When he reached the bottom of the letter, the neatly written signature confirmed it all. Die was left speechless, rereading the letter over and over yet nothing became any clearer.

“I must inform the king,” he said finally, teleporting away in an instant leaving a puff of thin, discoloured smoke in his wake.

\----

(Y/n) was sitting on the end of her bed, staring out the window again. Anti had taken her back to her room a while earlier, and although she was sad, (Y/n) was glad for the chance she got to stretch her legs a little.

But, of course, being back in the guest bedroom also bought with it the burden of Sparky and Howl. (Y/n) could’ve sworn that Howl was glaring at her as if upset with her about earlier, but she wasn’t entirely sure that wolves were capable of such complex emotions. Then again, why wouldn’t they be?

It was late in the afternoon by now, seeing as (Y/n) had slept in a little that morning. She hadn’t been woken for breakfast and lunch was never delivered. On the other hand, she remembered what happened at dinner. She shouldn’t have expected anything at all after that fiasco.

“Oh, the boys are back!” Anti said suddenly, snapping (Y/n) out of her thoughts.

_How long has he been here for…?_ She wondered as she watched him walk over and pat Sparky enthusiastically.

“You two sure are a funny pair of canines,” Anti commented, scratching Sparky behind the ear.

“Oh yeah,” Anti began, turning around to face (Y/n). “This is for you.”

Without thinking (Y/n) caught whatever Anti had thrown at her, realising it was an apple.

“I don’t suspect you’ll be eatin’ dinner tonight, lass,” Anti said, going back to petting Sparky.

“Or for a while, at least…” (Y/n) muttered to herself, looking down at the apple in her hand.

Sparky flopped over on his side so that Anti could scratch his stomach, kicking his leg in the air as Anti did so.

“I think Sparky likes that,” (Y/n) said, a smile on her face.

“Who?” Anti asked, turning to look at her.

(Y/n) felt her face heat up in embarrassment after realising what she had said. “O-oh, I meant the wolf,” she corrected herself quickly.

“What, have ye named the wolves or somethin’?” Anti asked further.

“I mean, yeah, I guess so…”

“What did you name ‘em?”

“That one’s Sparky,” (Y/n) said, pointing to the wolf Anti was petting. “And the other one’s Howl.”

Howl let out an indignant huff, turning away from the both of them.

“C’mon, now,” Anti said, looking over at Howl. “Don’t be a fuckin’ sook, ye great oaf!” Howl grumbled again, his back still facing them. Anti rolled his eyes.

“I got no bloody idea where that wolf gets his attitude from,” he said.

“Like owner like pet, I suppose.” (Y/n) wondered aloud, making Anti snigger.

“You've got a point there, lass.”

Then there was a knock at the door, and both Anti and (Y/n) turned to look.

“Uh, come in, I guess?” (Y/n) called out when the door didn’t open. A maid walked in a few moments later, glancing anxiously between (Y/n) and Anti.

“Master Antisepticeye, His Royal Highness has asked to speak to you personally and requests that you be on your way at once.” The maid said.

Anti stood up. “What does he want me for?”

The maid became worried. “I-I’m not sure, Sir, I was only sent to retrieve you,” she explained quickly.

“Yeah, whatever,” Anti shooed her with his hand. “I’ll be there in a minute.” The maid curtsied quickly and hurried away, closing the door behind her.

“I wonder what he wants to talk to you about-?” (Y/n) started, turning around only to see that Anti had vanished.

“Rude prick,” She muttered to herself.

\----

Anti appeared in the garden, thankful when his eyes landed on Dark a few feet ahead of him.

“God, there ye are!” he said, and Dark turned his head slightly to acknowledge Anti.

“I swear I checked every fuckin’ room in the castle yet _here_ you are. You couldn’t have told your messenger a location?” Anti moved to stand at Dark’s side. “What did you want to talk to me about, anyway?”

“I wanted to let you know that I’ve agreed to your proposal,” Dark said. “The human may indeed be allowed to _‘free-roam’_ , but _only_ under the supervision of you, Die or myself.” his tone was sharp, but Anti had already known that Dark wouldn’t be very lenient if he agreed to this idea.

Dark turned to look at Anti directly.

“Anti, are you… warming up to the human?” he asked rather bluntly.

“What?” Anti exclaimed, turning to look at Dark with a bewildered expression. “Of fuckin’ course not, idiot! _She’s a human, remember_?”

“I just thought it was interesting that a _human_ of all creatures was able to tame such an unruly being such as yourself,” Dark said, smirking inwardly.

“No one’s fuckin’ tamed anything, dumbass, but _you_ should be the one concerned with taming _her_ before she tries to take off again! Because I won’t always be here to stop her from escaping when your stupid _hounds_ aren’t enough-” Anti stopped suddenly, as if only just realising what he had said.

“So you admit that it was an escape attempt?” Dark continued.

“I’ve told you not to play you’re fuckin’ mind games with me,” Anti grumbled.

“But it _was_ an escape attempt-?”

“What of it?!” Anti barked. “She’s still here now and when I tell her she can explore the castle whenever she wants I’m sure it’ll calm her escapist nature,”

“Hopefully it’ll calm you down, too…” Dark mumbled quietly.

“Oh, fuck off,” Anti scoffed.

“And do try to watch your language.”

“I said _‘fuck off’_!” Anti snapped again, _glitching_ promptly out of existence.

_How funny,_ Dark thought. _He only does that when he’s upset. Maybe I hit a nerve._

He laughed to himself; Dark had always enjoyed getting under Anti’s skin.

The sound of distant footsteps made Dark stop, listening to where they were coming from. They were quick- hurried, even; the person in question was definitely running. The distant echo of the steps made Dark realise it was someone sprinting down the corridor that lead to the garden. He turned around in time to see Die emerge from the castle, panting heavily.

“Die? What’s the matter?” Dark asked rather lightly, before noticing the piece of paper Die had clutched in his right hand.

“My King,” Die managed between breaths, “It’s a letter, addressed to you,” Die handed it over to Dark who practically snatched the piece of paper away, reading it quickly.

“What?” Dark sounded confused. “When did this arrive?” He demanded, looking up at Die.

“This morning, sir,” Die seemed to have finally caught his breath. “Do you think it’s true?”

Dark was snapped out of his thoughts. “What?” he asked irritably.

“Do you really think he’ll come back?”

Dark’s tremendous grip on the letter began to crease the page. “After all this time? I wouldn’t think so, but here it is in writing.” His tone was sarcastic and wry, and Die had to force himself not to waver. Dark held the letter out for Die to take back, which he did so promptly.

“What are we going to do?” Die asked.

“Whatever we have to,” Dark responded arrogantly, fixing the cuff of his sleeve before disappearing in a cloud of shadowy mist.

Die was left alone in the garden now, a single question weighing on his mind.

_But why would Blank return?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this chapter isn't very exciting; I'm super duper excited to post the next chapter though! So stay tuned!! Hehehe!! ♡♡


	13. Roses

Stepping out of the bathroom (Y/n) noticed a weird looking shadow on the floor of the main room. She traced it back to the window, realising there was a piece of paper taped to the glass. Walking over she pulled it down so that she could read it.

_“You can explore the castle now or whatever. –Anti”_

(Y/n) felt her heart flutter for a moment before realising there was small writing at the bottom of the page.

_“P.S, you have to have me, Die or MCR with you at all times! –Anti”_

“M… CR?” (Y/n) said slowly. “What’s an MCR?” she moved her thumb to find even smaller writing underneath, and she had to bring the paper close to her face so that she could make out what it said.

_“P.P.S, I realised you’re too young to know what MCR is, so just know that I mean the edgelord. Dark. I mean Dark. –Anti”_

“God, that was the most obnoxious letter I’ve ever read,” (Y/n) muttered under her breath, folding up the piece of paper. She turned back to the window, noticing the gorgeous sunset. 

_I suppose it’s a bit late to ask Anti for another tour,_ she thought to herself. (Y/n) decided she would head to bed for the day, having not much else to do and wanting to desperately explore the castle again in the morning.

She was sick to death of the plain stone walls of her room. (Y/n) craved some sort of change, even if it was restricted.

_Hopefully Anti arrives fairly early in the morning, otherwise, I’ll be stuck in this stupid room for another day._

The next morning (Y/n) woke up fairly early, making her bed and freshening up as much as she could. She decided that it was pretty gross to wear the same clothes day in and day out, so she raided the walk-in robe for a new change of clothes. (Y/n) ended up wearing whatever had caught her eye, not thinking too deeply on whether or not they were practical for a ‘prisoner’ to wear.

After she’d gotten changed (Y/n) walked back into the bedroom. She looked around for a moment before calling out, “Antisepticeye?”

This startled the wolves slightly, making them both look to (Y/n) with their ears pricked in the air.

“Anti?” she called out again, slightly louder this time. When she got no response back (Y/n) walked to the door of her room, looking back to Howl. He watched her warily with his narrowed eyes.

(Y/n) reached out slowly for the door handle, inching the door open just enough so that she could stick her head out into the hallway.

“Anti?” she called, hearing her voice echoing off the walls. When yet again there was no response (Y/n) closed the door somewhat sadly, turning back into the room only to jump in surprise when she saw Anti standing in front of her.

“So you’re not calling me by my full name anymore? Good, I was actually getting kind of sick of it.”

“God, you scared me half to death!” (Y/n) said, a hand over her rapidly beating heart.

“Nobody calls me _‘Antisepticeye’_ except you, it’s kinda weird,” Anti continued, disregarding (Y/n)’s complaint. “You’re lucky I was on this side of the castle or I wouldn’t have even heard you.”

“Well, what am I _supposed_ to do?” (Y/n) asked.

Anti looked off to the side for a moment, thinking deeply on something.

“Ah, I guess I can tell you.” He finally decided.

“Tell me what?”

“If you ever need me and you don’t know where I am, just say _‘Contrarium’_ , got it?” he said.

“What? Why ‘Contrarium’?” she asked.

“Because I’ll hear you when you say it.”

“How will you be able to hear me-?” (Y/n) began, only for Anti to cut her off impatiently.

“Because _‘Contrarium’_ is my true demon name, alright? If you say it, no matter where you are, I’ll be able to hear you. It’s just how demons work.” He explained.

“Do _all_ demons have a ‘true name’?” (Y/n) asked after a moment.

“Yeah, they sure do. But you only get to know mine and that I can hear you when you say it. Knowing a demon’s name can give you a lotta fuckin’ power over them if you know how to use it.” Anti paused. “Good thing you’re a clinical dumbass.”

“Hey!”

“What did you want me for, anyway?” he asked finally.

“Oh,” (Y/n) responded, leaving her outburst behind her. “I was wondering if you could take me for a tour or something?”

“A what?”

“A tour,” (Y/n) said. “Of the castle. Like we did yesterday sort of.”

Anti thought for a moment.

“Aren’t tours kind of boring, though?” he asked. “What if we just chase each other around the halls or somethin’ instead?”

“Don’t I have to be with you at all times?” (Y/n) argued.

“If I’m chasing you I’m assuming that I know where you are,” Anti said. (Y/n) realised that he had a point. And even if he didn’t, she wasn’t going to object to some good fun.

“Alright, but we have to set some rules,” she said.

“What kind of _rules_?” Anti asked suspiciously.

“ _No teleporting_ ,” (Y/n) said sternly. Anti looked like he was about to object so she continued quickly. “It makes it too unfair for me! _I_ can’t teleport!”

“Yeah…” Anti agreed unhappily, “I guess so…”

“That was the only real rule, honestly.” She said after a moment.

“Oh. Can I add a rule?” Anti asked, and (Y/n) nodded. “Don’t go into any rooms you don’t know about. Or any of the offices, either, because I don’t want to get me arse handed to me by Dark,” Anti said.

“Sounds fair enough,” (Y/n) agreed.

“So where’re we gonna start?” Anti asked, and (Y/n) thought for a moment.

“ _You’re it!_ ” she shouted suddenly, pushing Anti to the ground violently before running towards the door.

“You fucker!” Anti yelled, scrambling to his feet to chase her. (Y/n) slammed the door behind her, slowing him down even more. She giggled immensely to herself as she ran down one of the halls. She felt so childish, but why did it matter? This was the most fun she’d had in weeks!

(Y/n) turned the corner, looking around frantically before spotting a cleaning closet built into the wall. She flung open the door and jumped inside, closing the door as quietly as she could behind her.

Through a small gap in the door she watched as Anti slid around the corner, letting out a noise of confusion.

“Where did ya go!?” he yelled down the hall. “You’re lucky that yer stupid human smell is still lingering from yesterday!”

(Y/n) had to stifle another giggle, watching as Anti ran past her and down to the other end of the hall.

Once he’d gone she crept out of the broom closet and ran back the way she came.

_Have fun finding me now, loser!_

(Y/n) laughed inwardly to herself, trying to think of the best place to hide from him.

 _It’ll take him ages before he looks in the garden,_ she thought. _Since he hates it so much I’m sure it’ll be the last thing on his mind!_

She ran as fast as she could to where Anti had taken her yesterday, watching the wall carefully for the corridor so she didn’t run past it.

_There!_

(Y/n) stopped, looking down each end of the hall quickly before slinking into the small passage. When she burst through the other side and out into the garden, she smiled warmly to herself as she stared around at all the beautiful blooms and blossoms.

_As lovely and vibrant as they were yesterday,_

She almost believed they would have disappeared overnight, but was thankful to see the garden was still as lovely and elegant as it had been the day before.

Looking around slowly and admiring all the flowers and colourful plants, (Y/n) nearly jumped out of her skin when she noticed Dark standing several feet away.

He was leaned rather casually against a large stone lion that sat beside some rose bushes with his back facing (Y/n). And, she noticed, his typical crisply coloured red-blue ‘outline’ seemed almost _sadder_ than usual. In fact, it almost looked as if it were _melting_ somehow.

(Y/n) took a step back, about to sneak out of the garden again when she had a moment of hesitation.

That moment was all it took for Dark to sigh and stand upright from his leaning position, turning around as if to leave when he noticed (Y/n) standing before him.

He seemed as surprised as she was, honestly.

(Y/n) almost immediately noticed the way his aura seemed to attempt to perk up, failing for the most part. She felt a pang of pity in her heart as she realised Dark was trying to put on a façade in front of her.

Much like her, Dark seemed like he was searching for the right words to say- anything at all, really.

“…Anti told me you like roses,” (Y/n) started awkwardly, gesturing to the bushes around them. Dark appeared to grimace slightly at the awkwardness.

“Yes, well… I do tend to think of them as one of my favourites,” he said finally, seemingly glad that the awkwardness was being broken up somewhat.

“I think that they’re quite lovely, too.” (Y/n) said, trying to keep the conversation going to avoid another awkward silence. “Is this your garden?” she asked.

Dark looked around for a moment. “Oh, well, I suppose it is. Although Die also liked the idea of a garden, I do tend to spend the most time here out of everyone.”

“I can see why. It’s a good place to think,” she agreed.

“Or just to take a breath, honestly,” Dark said rather wearily. (Y/n) did notice that he looked particularly tired.

Is that why she hadn’t seen him much? Was he too busy being preoccupied and stressed out? And all (Y/n) had done was make things harder for him by being a nuisance.

_No!_

She told herself.

_Stop feeling sorry for him! You’re being held hostage in his castle for god’s sake!_

“I take it that you also fancy the garden? Anti told me you were out here the other day.” Dark said, tearing (Y/n) away from her thoughts.

“Yes, I do.” She replied quickly. “These flowers are… tremendously beautiful. I’ve never seen such lovely colours before in my life.” She admitted.

“You’re right,” Dark continued, glancing around. “This _is_ a good place to think. A quiet getaway, if you will. And… if you don’t mind me saying, it’s where I come to when I’m feeling particularly… _overwhelmed_.”

_Why on Earth did I tell her that?_

Dark scolded himself, somewhat surprised at what had just come out of his mouth.

_Don’t be such a fool, you bumbling idiot. She’s a member of the rebellion, you shouldn’t be admitting anything of weakness to her!_

“It does seem like a good place to _‘take a breath’_ , as you put it.” (Y/n) added.

A moment of silence passed, filled only with the sounds of the rustling plants in the wind around them and a few bird chirps here and there.

“Flare, I just wanted to-” Dark had begun, but was cut off when (Y/n) was shoved violently, almost sending her into the ground. He instinctively reached out to catch her but luckily (Y/n) caught her balance before she could really fall too far.

“Found you!” Anti yelled, and Dark straightened up quickly as both he and (Y/n) turned to look at Anti.

“You can’t hide from me, bucko!” Anti laughed, and (Y/n) noted that he was hovering a few feet off the ground.

“Hey, we said no teleporting!” She exclaimed suddenly in realisation.

“You can’t _prove_ that I teleported!” Anti retorted, spinning around in the air a few times. “Besides, you have to catch me first!” he dropped to the ground and began to sprint away.

“Get back here!” (Y/n) called, hot on his heels.

As the sound of their yelling and laughter died away, Dark was left in the quiet ambience of the garden.

_That was rather… odd…_

He thought to himself, although he couldn’t help but smile slightly. He wasn’t quite sure why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I swear I'm going back to my bi-weekly updating schedule after this lmao ^^;


	14. Daegicae

(Y/n) collapsed onto the floor of the hallway, drawing in deep breaths.

“That was _awesome_!” Anti exclaimed, jumping around enthusiastically.

“What? Aren’t you tired? We’ve been running around for like twenty minutes straight!” (Y/n) wheezed out.

“Seriously? You’re beat _already_?” Anti sounded upset, but she couldn’t tell whether or not he was being genuine.

“Anti, I’m pretty sure that even for a demon you have an unrealistic amount of energy,”

“Hey, I know what we can do!” Anti looked as if he’d just had a ‘light bulb’ moment. “What if we go do some training?” he suggested.

“Where?” (Y/n) asked, standing up again after she’d finally caught her breath.

“In the training room, ya tool! Where else?”

“There’s a _training room_?” she looked to Anti with an astounded look on her face.

“I’m flattered that ye assume me combat ability is purely natural, lass, but even _I_ have to train every now and again.” She rolled her eyes at him.

“Where is it, anyway?” (Y/n) asked.

“Do you want me to just teleport us there? I think you’re gonna collapse before we make it.” Anti joked.

“I’ll be fine!” (Y/n) retorted indignantly.

“Nah, I don’t trust you.” Anti slung one of his arms around (Y/n)’s shoulders, putting all of his weight onto her.

“Hey!” This surprised her slightly, and she nearly fell over seeing as she wasn’t expecting to have to hold him up.

While (Y/n) struggled to keep her balance she noticed the hallway around them fade into the same strange black void before a new room began to appear around them.

“Here we are!” Anti said, standing up again. When (Y/n) had straightened herself up again she began to look around the room.

It was absolutely enormous, and she could imagine at least three-quarters of the entire royal guard sparring in here. One small section of the wall was lined with various weapons (many of them fakes or replicas, thankfully), and in another spot there sat several punching bags slumped against the wall.

At one end of the giant space, there was even a small ensemble of wooden post dummies, several of them having wooden swords taped (rather badly) to one of their protruding wooden rungs.

“It’s great, isn’t it?” Anti asked giddily, and (Y/n) looked up to see him floating around high in the room. It seemed to her like this was _his_ garden.

Anti landed back on the ground rather delicately. “How’s yer hand-to-hand combat?” he asked, taking up a fighting stance.

“What? Are we really going to spar?” (Y/n) laughed a little.

“That’s what we came here for, wasn’t it?” Anti began to edge closer to (Y/n). “If I remember correctly we’re 1-0, me winning our last fight.”

“One all, actually,” she corrected him rather slyly. “I do recall that I won our _first_ fight.”

“Won? Oh, please. You ran away!”

“No better time than now to settle the score, I guess.” (Y/n) settled into her own fighting stance, rushing forward and striking out at Anti.

She missed him completely as he jumped away, and he retaliated by socking her in the jaw. (Y/n) stumbled back, but managed to keep her balance.

_He could have totally knocked me out then,_

She thought to herself.

_But somehow he knew the precise amount of force he needed to apply for me to still be standing._

(Y/n) looked into Anti’s eyes, full of fiery excitement as he bounced back and forth on his feet.

_He knows exactly what he’s doing._

Until now, (Y/n) would have taken Anti for a guns-blazing kind of fighter, and she already had, but now at this moment she realised that every move he made was calculated and timed.

 _Makes enough sense,_ she realised. _Darkiplier wouldn’t allow a fool to be in charge of his royal guard. Anti’s passionate about fighting, it’s what he’s good at._

“Are ye gonna stand there all day, or what?” Anti jested.

“Not at all,” (Y/n) rushed forward again, rearing back for a hit when she ducked to the side suddenly, getting behind Anti and kicking out his legs all in one swift motion. She felt a sense of pride shine within her at the thought of having surprised him. He fell flat onto his back with an airy “Oof!”

Anti looked up at her from the floor, grinning. “You were really happy with yerself over that one, weren’t ya?”

(Y/n) showed a sheepish grin of her own.

“You’re lucky I’m not teleportin’, otherwise that would have never happened,” Anti said, standing up again.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say,” (Y/n) rolled her eyes playfully. Although she understood that his words were purely for a laugh, she could definitely see how easy it would be to use teleportation as a sort of crutch. A major advantage, in any matter. Why _not_ use it?

Then again (Y/n) didn’t dare doubt Anti’s combat ability in the slightest, even without teleporting. He could certainly hold his own, that was for certain in any case.

Anti swung out suddenly with his fist, and (Y/n) dodged it fairly easily. She grabbed his outstretched arm and began dragging it over her shoulder only for Anti to kick (Y/n) in the back of the knee, making her let go of his arm so that she could catch her balance.

She spun around quickly to confront him again only to duck back just in time to avoid a round-house kick from Anti.

They continued to spar for a while, Anti missing some and (Y/n) missing others. Overall (Y/n) seemed to be fairing better.

Anti kept talking about how he was at a disadvantage since he couldn’t teleport but (Y/n) knew that he was just playing it all up so that she wouldn’t notice he was going easy on her. Anti was pulling punches and making careless strike attempt after careless strike attempt.

(Y/n) didn’t take offence to any of it, though, but rather felt touched that Anti would want her to feel as though she _actually_ stood a fair chance against him.

“Ow!” Anti yelled, immediately after (Y/n) had socked him directly in the nose.

(Y/n) gasped, putting her hands to her mouth in shock. “I’m so sorry!”

“Fuck you, that’s dirty fighting,” Anti said, pinching his nose to see if it was broken.

(Y/n) scrunched her brow, taking her hands away from her face. “I’m pretty sure it _isn’t_?”

“I don’t care, it fuckin’ hurt!” he blinked hard a few times before touching the bottom of his nose softly. “Oh, now look what ya fuckin’ did you great gobshite!”

Anti held his fingers out for (Y/n) to see; they had the slightest trace of blood on them.

“Well, it doesn’t look too bad-” She took a step closer to Anti only for him to exclaim,

“Get back, I’m bleedin’ all over the place!”

“Oh, grow up,” (Y/n) walked over to Anti and grabbed his face gently in both her hands. “You look fine to me,” she said, and Anti shook her off similar to the way a stray dog might.

“You won’t be sayin’ that when I die from blood loss,” He muttered.

In the corner of her eye (Y/n) saw something move, and she turned to see someone leaving the room. They stood at the door for a moment, holding it open as they stared back at (Y/n).

_Is that Dark?_

“You better take me to see Die or somethin’, before I pass out cold,” Anti said, and she glanced back to him before returning her attention to Dark only to realise that he was gone. (Y/n) looked back to Anti. She sighed.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

\----

Die let out an exasperated breath. “Anti, is this truly so urgent? Your nose will stop bleeding in a few minutes. Even less due to your demonic regeneration.”

“I think she broke me fuckin’ nose!” Anti exclaimed.

“I didn’t hit you _that_ hard!”

“I’ll hit you both that hard if you don’t shut up,” Die said. “Anti, there’s really nothing I can do for you.”

“Liar!” Anti jumped forward, pointing a finger towards Die. “I know that you practice _daegicae_ , bastard!”

“Yes, but I don’t see any point in using it to fix your _clearly_ unbroken nose when it’ll be fully healed within the half-hour!”

“Daegicae?” (Y/n) piped up, and Die turned to her.

“ _’Daegicae’_ is what we call our demon magic.” He said.

“Like how you fixed the wall in my room?” Die nodded. “Oh! Well, I’ll break Anti’s nose for real if that’s what it takes for you to use it again!”

Anti’s eyes widened. “You won’t be breakin’ shit, ye fuckin’ lunatic!”

“What?” Die also became confused.

“I want to see you use _day-jack-way_ or whatever it was again!” she said excitedly.

“Daegicae,” Die corrected her.

“Yeah, that! It was super cool the first time I saw it! I’d love to see you use it again!”

“Yeah, show us some daegicae, Die!” Anti joined in.

“Not you too,” Die rolled his eyes.

“Please!” Anti and (Y/n) huddled together, pouting sadly up at Die.

“Okay, fine,” he said, “But I’m not using it to stop Anti’s nose dripping blood.”

Die turned to a pile of books sitting on his desk.

“Remetior,” he flicked his hand towards the bookshelf against the wall, and all at once the books began to rise into the air as a thin blue wisp ran across the desk.

“Is that daegicae?” (Y/n) asked, pointing to the blue wisp.

“Sort of,” Die said. “Daegicae is different for everyone, but not many people actually put in the effort to master it- or even learn it anymore, for that matter.”

“That’s such a shame,” (Y/n) said. “If you had the chance to use magic, why wouldn’t you take it?”

“It does take a lot of time, patience and effort,” Die said. “And the need for daegicae has sort of… _worn itself out_ over the years.”

They all watched as the books danced one by one towards the bookshelf, slotting themselves into the correct places before the remnants of wisp disappeared from them completely. Soon every book that had been on Die’s desk was now neatly put away back into the bookshelf.

“There,” Die said, a satisfied smile on his face. He turned to Anti and (Y/n). “Are you two happy now?” They both nodded.

“Yes! That was amazing!” (Y/n) said giddily. “It truly was brilliant!”

“Yeah, well, don’t get ahead of yourself lass,” Anti muttered.

“Anti, can you use daegicae?” (Y/n) turned to look at him suddenly with stars in her eyes. Anti blinked at her.

“Uh… I don’t want to,” he said finally.

“If I’m not mistaken, you can’t use daegicae, can you?” Die said, and (Y/n) looked as if she had deflated.

“Aw, really? You can’t use it? Was it too hard to learn, or something?” she asked.

“Hey, I so _can_ use daegicae! I just don’t feel like it!” Anti retorted, crossing his arms over his chest indignantly.

“Really? I’ve never seen you use it once in my whole life.” Die said.

“Yeah, well, I don’t tell you _everything_ ,” Anti turned away from them.

“Anti, show us your daegicae!” (Y/n) exclaimed.

“Flare, I’m not so sure he actually can-” Die had begun, but (Y/n) cut him off.

“Even if he can’t, I think he can learn! Anti’s really talented, and he’s really smart, too! I mean, sometimes…” she trailed off for a moment. “Anyway, I believe in him! He can use daegicae, I’m sure of it!”

Anti turned his head slightly to the side so he could look at (Y/n). “Do you really think that much of me?” he asked quietly.

“Of course I do!” she replied. “Now show us your daegicae!”

“I agree with her, actually.” Die started suddenly. Both (Y/n) and Anti turned to look at him. “You are very… _strong-willed_ when you want to be, and you can certainly accomplish anything you put your mind to. Besides,” Die smiled. “It’ll be nice to know I’m not the only demon who still practices daegicae. So why don’t you show us yours?”

“Yeah!” (Y/n) exclaimed in agreement.

Anti sighed, turning around to face them both again with his arms still crossed over his chest. “I dunno. It looks kinda… _stupid_.” he said. “My daegicae, that is. That’s why I don’t use it.”

“Show it to us!” (Y/n) looked like she might explode. “I’m certain it looks great!”

“You’d better show her, Anti,” Die said. “Before Flare passes out cold on the floor.”

“Alright, alright, chill out already,” Anti looked like he was genuinely concerned that (Y/n) would hurt herself out of excitement, gesturing with his hands for her to calm down. “I’ll show you, just… sit down or something,”

Die pulled out the chair from behind his desk for (Y/n) to sit on, positioning it at the edge of the room so that Anti had plenty of space. She sat down, and Die stood beside her.

They both watched Anti expectantly, and he rubbed the back of his neck as he took a deep breath to settle his nerves. He closed his eyes and put his arms at his sides, inhaling slowly.

“ _Minima stellarum!_ ” Anti exclaimed, throwing one of his hands above his head. At first (Y/n) thought nothing was going to happen, but suddenly with a glitch above Anti’s hand, there was a dazzling mess of sparkles that exploded into existence. They flew to every corner of the roof and lay stagnant for a moment before they all began to float downwards, swarming around the room.

“Woah!” (Y/n) cried out, jumping from her seat. Die also looked somewhat surprised. (Y/n) watched one of the sparkles closely, and she noticed that every few moments it would take on a glitchy effect before returning to normal.

Anti must have noticed, commenting, “Yeah, that’s a _side-effect_ of my daegicae… well, it _is_ my daegicae.”

“The… glitches?” Die asked, also inspecting a separate sparkle.

“Yeah. Part of me demon magic. Ye know how I glitch out sometimes? It’s like that.” Anti explained.

“How peculiar,” Die said.

(Y/n) stared up and around at all of the sparkles, realising that they glitched back out of existence when they came too close to the ground.

“Is that the part of your daegicae that you think looks stupid?” She asked, pointing as one of the specs glitched. Anti nodded.

“Really? I think it looks super cool! I don’t know why you want to hide it, it looks awesome!”

“Thanks, kid.” Anti said quietly, using his hand to swat a few of the sparkles away from his face.

Although he didn’t express it too verbally, (Y/n) knew from Anti’s bashful smirk that her encouragement on his daegicae meant a lot to him; even if he didn’t want to show it.

“It is fascinating,” Die said. “I’ve never seen any daegicae like it before. I guess you could say you’re one of a kind,” he turned to look at Anti, offering him a smile.

“I guess you could.” Anti gave him a lopsided smile in return.

“Why did you decide to learn daegicae?” Die asked, walking closer to Anti. (Y/n) was still preoccupied with the sparkling flecks Anti had summoned.

“I saw you use it once, and I thought it looked… pretty cool. So I thought, hey, why not?” Anti responded quietly, watching as (Y/n) jumped to try and grab one of the sparkles. When she landed on the ground again and opened her fist the sparkle has disappeared.

“Is that truly the reason why?” Die asked, almost in disbelief.

“Yeah, I thought I could get better at it than you and whoop yer ass in a fight,” Anti said.

“Well, you don’t need daegicae for that.” Die and Anti shared a small laugh.

\----

The rest of the day was pretty ordinary, and (Y/n) decided to go to bed early so she could wake up and explore more of the castle. But as she was getting herself ready to sleep there was a knock at the door.

“Yes?”

The door opened to reveal the maid who used to deliver (Y/n)’s meals. And, sure enough, she waddled into the room holding a tray of food. (Y/n) had to do a double-take on that one. There was actual _food_ on the tray; not just a few slices of bread.

“Is this for me?” (Y/n) asked as the maid stopped at her bedside. The maid nodded briskly.

“And- I’m sorry, I never asked your name?” (Y/n) asked a little bashfully.

“O-Oh, my name is Mandy, Commander.” The maid responded.

 _Commander?_ (Y/n) thought. _Word must travel fast around here._

She felt her heart clench for a moment as she realised that was the same thing Catherine had told her when they’d met that day in the dungeon all those years ago. So much time had passed, yet somehow those memories always found a way to resurface themselves in (Y/n)’s mind.

“Well, thank you for this, Mandy. Truly.” (Y/n) gave the maid a small smile as she took the tray from her hands. The dish on the plate was simple, just an omelette, but at this point, any food was better than no food.

“It’s my pleasure, Commander Flare,” Mandy curtsied before making her way out of the room.

(Y/n) looked back down to her omelette, smiling at it.

_Maybe our talk in the garden meant something to him after all._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! I hope at least some of you found this interesting lmao, because I have big plans for future demon lore in the story that may or may not be a very crucial part of the plot >:))


	15. The Map

(Y/n) stood in the middle of her room, looking around somewhat nervously. Sparky and Howl were at their regular positions, one on each side of the bed.

_Contrarium. It can’t be that easy, can it?_

(Y/n) suppressed a wince, instead taking a deep breath in.

She had eaten breakfast a little earlier which was nothing too special; a few pieces of toast accompanied by a glass of water. During that time the sun had risen reasonably high into the sky and thankfully wasn't low enough anymore to be glaring in through the window at a weird angle.

“Contrarium,” (Y/n) said in a loud voice. She wasn’t quite sure how loud she had to be or if any of it actually affected how well Anti would hear her, so she just hoped for the best.

Anti’s smoke began to seep into the room, and after a moment he appeared before (Y/n).

“What is it, human?” he asked.

“I want to go explore the castle again!” She explained, and Anti sighed.

“I hate to tell ya, lass, but I’ve got important stuff to do today. I won’t be around again until late in the evening.”

“Oh, that’s alright… I’ll just… stay here, then,” (Y/n) responded. Anti noticed her crestfallen expression and he winced involuntarily.

“Hey, uh, look… maybe I can get one of the other two to look after ye? Die wouldn’t mind babysitting for a day.”

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Of course I’m sure!” Anti said. (Y/n) seemed to light up like a Christmas tree, trying to suppress a wide smile but ultimately failing in the end.

_That’s more like it,_

Anti thought to himself. He didn’t like seeing people sad; he never knew what to do. He was just lucky that this time there was an easy fix for the situation.

“Now c’mere, I gotta take you to Die soon before I have to leave.” Anti gestured with a flick of his head for (Y/n) to walk closer, which she did rather excitedly.

“Don’t go annoyin’ Die, now, since I haven’t _actually_ told him he’ll be babysitting you for the day.”

“Are you sure it’ll be okay with him?” (Y/n) asked again.

“Who cares?” Anti replied. “As long as I run out of there before he realises, he’ll feel too guilty to leave you by yourself again.”

Before (Y/n) could even begin to protest Anti had grabbed hold of her arm, holding her in place as he teleported them out of the room.

(Y/n) opened her eyes to see the familiar space that was Die’s office. Although Anti had performed his daegicae the day before, she half hoped that the shiny specs had stuck around, but unfortunately there was no trace of them left at all.

“Oh- Anti, Flare,” Die looked like he had just walked into his office, in the middle of closing the door. “What can I help you two with?”

“Yer babysittin’ the lass today,” Anti said quickly.

“What? Anti, I really can’t-”

“Toodaloo, hope you two don’t have too much fun while I’m gone!” Anti jumped into the air, pulling a face at Die before teleporting away mid-jump. Die sighed, turning to look at (Y/n).

“I’m sorry that it seems he’s just… _dumped_ you here, but unfortunately I’m not nearly as _‘fun’_ as he might be.” He said.

“That’s fine,” (Y/n) said. Truthfully she didn’t mind if she just had to sit in a chair all day- she wanted to be in the presence of someone else for a while, otherwise, she’d have to sit in a silent room with Sparky and Howl for another several hours.

Honestly, she felt kind of bad for Die, seeing as Anti really had just _dumped_ her here.

“If you’re too busy, I can go back to my room if you want.” (Y/n) offered.

“No, no,” Die walked over to his desk. “It’s fine, truly. I wouldn’t want you to be alone, after all.”

Although Die had reacted exactly as Anti had predicted, (Y/n) still felt a rush of happiness at Die’s words.

Die sat at his desk, pulling out a quill and dipping it into an inkpot a few times before scribbling something down onto a piece of paper.

(Y/n) felt awkward standing in the middle of the room. She looked around quickly, spotting a chair on the other side of the room that was propped up against the wall. She walked over to it and sat down, glancing around at the finer details of Die’s office.

For starters, there were many, many bookshelves lining the walls. The only wall without shelves was the one behind Die’s desk, since it was occupied (mostly) by a large window.

“Do you like to read?” Die asked, making (Y/n) turn back to him. He must have noticed her eyeing the shelves.

“I’ve never really had time for it, honestly.” She responded.

As one of the top commanders of the rebellion, (Y/n)’s time was mostly spent training recruits, having important meetings, planning raids… that kind of stuff. When she was… _younger_ , and she used to live in the farmhouse, (Y/n) actually quite enjoyed reading.

“I see…” Die tapped his pen on the desk a few times. “If you’d like to read a bit, I could take you to the library? Seeing as you have plenty of time to read, now.”

_A library?_

(Y/n) thought to herself. Anti had never told her about a library- then again… he probably hates reading.

_This castle sure does have a room for everything…_

“Only if you aren’t busy, I wouldn’t want to interrupt your work.” She said.

“Nonsense,” Die placed the quill into a holder before standing from his desk. “I’d love to get away from this paperwork for a while, anyway.” He walked closer to her, holding his hand out politely.

(Y/n) stood up from her own seat and grabbed his hand, and after a few seconds her vision was blurred by a blue mist.

Slightly confused when her sight cleared and there weren’t any shelves around them, (Y/n) realised that Die had teleported them into one of the halls. In front of them stood a set of double doors, and she guessed that the library lay behind them.

Die took a step forward and pushed open one of the large doors. “I do hope you can find something to read,” he said as the door opened inward.

(Y/n)’s mouth opened in awe as she caught a glimpse of the sheer _mass_ of giant shelves.

“After you,” Die gestured, and she walked in slowly. The further into the room she walked the more amazed she became. (Y/n) hadn’t seen many libraries in her lifetime, but this was without a doubt the biggest one. She hardly believed there was a bigger library out there.

Some of the tall shelves stretched as high as the roof, gigantic ladders attached to them so that you were able to grab the books on display.

“There’s plenty here, and it’s even organised into sections for you,” Die explained. “Read whatever book catches your fancy.” He noticed (Y/n)’s awestruck expression when she didn’t respond.

“Are you okay?” he asked, stepping in front of her.

(Y/n) closed her mouth promptly, seemingly snapped from her trance. “Yes, I’m fine,” she reassured him. “Just… _amazed_.”

“I understand what you mean,” Die said, turning to look around at the shelves himself. “It can be quite overwhelming at first.”

“Just a bit.” (Y/n) laughed nervously.

“As I was saying, feel free to roam around and read whatever books you like. You can stay in here for as long as you wish, and-” Die stopped when a maid rushed hurriedly into the room.

He leant down slightly as she whispered something in his ear before running off again. Die straightened, silent for a moment as he collected his thoughts.

“I’m terribly sorry,” he turned to (Y/n) with a somewhat worried expression on his face. “But it seems I have to go _sort something out_ , but rest assured I won’t drag you along with me.”

Die must have noticed (Y/n)’s torn expression because he continued.

“I know that I’m supposed to be supervising you, but as long as you stay in here- you don’t even have to read- neither of us will get in trouble. Alright?” Die gave her a small smile.

“Okay. Thanks, Die.” She smiled back, getting a warm feeling in her chest when she realised Die trusted her enough to let her have some unsupervised time by herself; outside of her room.

“Not a worry. I should be back soon, but I’d recommend finding a nice book to read just in case.” Die turned away and walked out of the library, the large doors closing behind him.

(Y/n) gave a general glance around at all of the shelves, every single one of them chocked full of books.

“Where do I even start..?” she mumbled under her breath.

She made her way to the _fiction_ section, but ultimately nothing caught her eye. At some point (Y/n) had wandered into the _non-fiction_ section, and she started running one hand along the spines of the books as she walked.

_Maybe I can find a book on daegicae?_

She thought rather excitedly to herself. (Y/n) ran to the beginning of the aisle, reading every book title precariously before moving on.

Many of the words were ones (Y/n) had never even heard of before- and she guessed they must have been in Latin (since most demons spoke Latin).

_Coctione… magicas invitam… accingier?_

No, that didn’t sound right.

_Tormentis medii aevi…_

No, not that one either.

_Historia daegicae… no, wait! Daegicae! That’s it!_

In her haste to snatch the book from the shelf, (Y/n) must have knocked a second book from somewhere as it tumbled into the ground, opening as it fell and splaying its pages on the floor.

“Ah, shit…” (Y/n) muttered under her breath. She looked around quickly to make sure nobody had seen her carelessly damage what looked to be an ancient book.

She put her daegicae book aside and picked up the book off the ground, blowing the dust off of it before attempting to read the title.

The book cover was worn and tattered, much like the pages inside, and the once dark lettering on the front had faded so much it was barely readable.

“ _’Est Vinculum… Animarum’_..? What does that mean?” No human she’d ever met had known Latin! How was she supposed to know what this book was about? What _any_ of these books were about?

And to (Y/n)’s displeasure, upon opening the book it seemed the entire thing was written in Latin as well.

“I don’t suppose Anti or Die would care to translate this for me…” she muttered in annoyance.

(Y/n) looked up, noticing the orange hum of a fireplace through a small gap in the bookshelves. She picked up the mysterious book along with her original book on daegicae, walking over to the gap and peaking inside.

It was a reading nook! Shrouded in tall bookshelves, mostly concealed from the rest of the room. There was the fireplace she had seen from the outside, as well as a large coffee table that sat in front of it. Adjacent to the coffee table was two large armchairs.

Something about the space felt… _nostalgic_ to (Y/n), even though she was sure she had never been here before.

She stepped gingerly inside and approached the coffee table, putting down the books she had collected. (Y/n) honestly hadn’t realised how cold she was until she felt the warmth of the fire on her skin. Stepping closer to the flames she held her hands out to warm them up.

Turning back to look at the books on the table, (Y/n) noticed an odd-looking page sticking out of the mystery book.

_Weird,_

She thought to herself.

_I don’t think that was there before…_

(Y/n) sat down next to the coffee table with her back to the fire, relishing the warmth that she felt deep in her bones.

Picking out the loose page, (Y/n) realised it had been folded over a couple of times. And, she noticed, this paper was _definitely_ different to the paper inside the mystery book, so it hadn’t just come loose and fallen out.

Unfolding the paper, it seemed to be some sort of floorplan… a map, even. After a few moments of staring blankly at the page (Y/n) realised that is was a part of the castle! Although, once again, everything seemed to be in _Latin_. Or at least, some language (Y/n) couldn’t understand.

Up the other end of the page (Y/n) noticed some kind of movement, thinking her mind was playing tricks on her until she turned her gaze and saw the word _‘Mortis’_ gliding across the page. It seemed to enter a room labelled something she couldn’t understand, but either way, she was astounded that the ink was moving at all.

The amazement soon wore off when (Y/n) was fed up with trying to decipher the words.

“I can’t even read Latin, this is useless.” Blowing a raspberry she threw the page down and it slid to the end of the table.

(Y/n) opened her book on daegicae and began to try and read through it, even if she truly _didn’t_ know Latin.

She once again noticed a weird movement from the map and tried to force herself not to look over to it. Eventually (Y/n) gave in to her curiosity and grabbed the page, sliding it back towards her

“How the..?” inexplicably, the words on the page began to melt away into something she could read- into actual _English_.

The centre of the page had a large room labelled _‘Library’_ in big fancy writing.

Miraculously, (Y/n) also noticed _her name_ written down inside the library on the map.

_What..? Who wrote my name in here?_

She became panicked after realising the small embellished writing specifically said _‘(Y/n)’_ , not _‘Flare’_.

She had never told anybody her birth name. As far as she was concerned, Anti was the only person in the entire world who knew her birth name. Not even Reef, Brandy or Marcy knew of her birth name, (Y/n) had made sure of it herself.

Although she highly doubted Anti would spend his time drawing up a map, she had no other explanation for it.

(Y/n)’s eyes widened with understanding, and she realised that the strange word gliding across the page earlier must have been someone’s _name_. Unfortunately though, she noticed, the strange name had disappeared from view.

_Well, at least I can read this now._

She reassured herself.

After pondering on it for a little longer, (Y/n) realised that the strange map showed you where people were- and how and where they were moving. She wondered if the page was restricted to showing the library and its surrounding areas.

 _I’ll have to check it later,_ she noted.

“I wonder why it would call me (Y/n) and not Flare..?” she muttered under her breath. Almost as if on cue, the ‘(Y/n)’ in the centre of the page began to warp into ‘Flare’.

“O-oh,” (Y/n) was slightly taken aback by this. “Thank you...?” she continued unsurely. Truth be told, (Y/n) felt kind of weird talking to a piece of paper.

“I have a feeling that even if I say ‘please’ those books won’t translate themselves into English for me…” she trailed off, looking back to the two books she had brought with her.

_I’ll just have to try and decipher them myself._

She finally concluded. (Y/n) began reaching for the daegicae book, but stopped short. After a moment of hesitation, she instead picked up the mystery book that had once contained the odd map.

 _Maybe this book can tell me something about the map? Maybe that’s why someone had placed the map inside it?_ She thought hopefully, but in the end there wasn’t much else she could do.


	16. The Bookworms

(Y/n) wasn’t sure how much time had passed, she could have been sitting in front of that fire for hours for all she knew, but she was still no closer to deciphering any of the writing inside either of the books.

Earlier she had stopped and tried her hand at reading the daegicae book but ran into the same problem of  _ not being able to read it at all _ . It frustrated her to no end, but for some reason, she believed switching back to the mystery book would give her some luck.

“ _ ’Find a nice book to read,’ _ he said,  _ ‘whatever catches your fancy,’ _ he said. Yeah, well, I think Die forgot I can’t speak a lick of Latin! And that’s all these bloody books seem to be written in!” (Y/n) exclaimed to herself. 

She wasn’t  _ really _ mad at Die; (Y/n) knew he meant well, she was just frustrated that with all her might she couldn’t understand a single word in either of the books she’d picked out. Every other book in the library that she’d seen seemed to be in Latin, too, just from their titles.

(Y/n) ran a hand through her hair, becoming physically tired from how much effort she was using trying to read a language she’d hardly ever seen before. She glanced over to the map. 

Every once and a while she’d see an odd-sounding name walk through the hall outside the library- which she guessed were guards doing their rounds- and every so often she’d see a human name race past, assuming it was a maid or a servant tending to their duties.

The map was still now, though. She hadn’t seen a name float by in a while. (Y/n) began rereading the words and labels on the map, thankful for something she could actually understand.

_Library, West Hall, Flare…_ _Hold on a second._

(Y/n) noticed some writing on the map that hadn’t been there before. Pulling the paper closer, she squinted at the page, trying to read the small, cursive writing.

_ Darkiplier…? _

Although it was good to know that not even the king was excused from being present on the weird map, (Y/n) was more concerned with the fact that he seemed to also be in the library.

_ No, that can’t be right- I haven’t heard anybody come in! And what would he even be doing in here-? _

She was snapped out of her thoughts as she heard a book fall somewhere towards the entrance to the reading nook. Her head shot up from the map, and without thinking, she pulled it under the coffee table and folded it up quickly.

“Hello?” she called out.

“…My apologies,” Dark seemed to step out of the shadows of the bookshelves, reaching down to pick up the book that he’d knocked over. “I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“O-oh, it’s fine, really,” she shoved the map into her pocket before Dark could notice it under the table. “I wasn’t really doing anything anyway.”

“Just some light reading?” Dark gestured to the two rather thick books (Y/n) had on the coffee table. He then examined the book he had in his hands, turning it over to read the back briefly before looking to (Y/n). 

“Can you read Latin?” he asked, obviously knowing that every book in the library was written in the language.

“Ah, no…” (Y/n) responded bashfully, closing over the mystery book sitting in front of her. “I tried my hand at deciphering the words, but…” she trailed off.

“So you’re not even sure what those books are about?” he looked like he was trying not to laugh as he walked closer.

“Well, I know that this one is somehow related to daegicae,” she said confidently, pointing at one of the books. Dark continued towards the table, turning his head sideways to read the cover of the book.

“You’re right on the money there; that book’s about the history of daegicae.” Dark straightened up, placing the book he had in his hands delicately on the table as he continued. “How do you know about daegicae?”

“I saw Die use it once, and…” she stopped speaking, looking off to the side. 

“And?” Dark prompted her.

“And I watched Anti use it yesterday in Die’s office.” 

Dark’s eyes seemed to glint with curiosity. “Is that so?”

“Die even explained to me a little about what daegicae is, and it got me interested, so I thought I might read into it more.” She finished. “But, as I said, I haven’t had much luck with it…”

“Latin is a very…  _ interesting _ language,” Dark commented.

“Is it very hard to learn?” (Y/n) asked.

“Hard to learn? It is a deceased language,” Dark explained. “Even before…” 

He stopped short, but already (Y/n) knew what he was going to say.  _ ‘Even before I became King’.  _

“Anyway… did you know that all demons know Latin?” Dark started. (Y/n) shook her head. “Yes, well, every demon comes into existence knowing Latin. It’s quite odd, actually… the lucky ones already know English, the unlucky ones have to learn it.”

“Which one were you?” (Y/n) asked. Dark stared at her for a moment, seemingly unprepared for such a question.

“Well… I suppose that considering my circumstances, I could already speak English quite effectively.” Once again Dark looked as if he was about to say more, but didn’t. This was the second time he had stopped himself, and (Y/n) had begun to wonder why. Was there something he didn’t want her to know?

“Can you tell me what this book is called?” She asked, turning the mystery book so that it now faced Dark.

“Of course,” he looked down at the book and (Y/n) noticed that his outline seemed to  _ jump _ for a moment, as if in surprise. Dark still held a stoic expression, though.

“Actually… I don’t think you’ll be much interested in this book.” He concluded, picking it up from the coffee table and tucking it under his arm.

“What? Why? What’s it about?” (Y/n) asked.

“…It’s an encyclopaedia on plants, vastly different from your ‘history of daegicae’ book; less to enjoy, it would be quite a boring read.” Dark reassured her.

**_Liar._ **

**_Why did you lie to her?_ **

Dark pushed the oddly intrusive thought away, unsure of where it came from.

“I’ll just put it back where I found it, then,” (Y/n) said, snapping Dark from his thoughts as she held her hand out for the return of the book.

“Ah, actually...” Dark tilted his head to the side slightly. “I think I may read it myself, it might help me tend to the roses and such.” 

**_The roses?_ **

The intrusiveness of such a simple thought once again took Dark by surprise.

_ That’s not me… _

He thought unsurely to himself. But it seemed that no other thoughts came back for a response.

“Yeah, the roses…” (Y/n) knew she wasn’t getting that book back any time soon, and she  _ definitely _ knew that it wasn’t an  _ ‘encyclopaedia on plants’ _ .

“Perhaps, if you can’t seem to decipher it on your own, maybe  _ I _ could assist you in translating your book?” Dark said, gesturing briefly to (Y/n)’s book on daegicae. “After all, I am, evidently, fluent in Latin.” The offer surprised (Y/n), but it wasn’t exactly unwelcome.

“Oh, um… of course! I’d love that.” She immediately felt a sense of dread wash over her. 

Had that  _ really  _ just come out of her mouth? ‘ _ I’d love that?’ _ She couldn’t tell if her skin was becoming hot from overexposure to the fire or from sheer embarrassment at her own stupidity.

(Y/n) could have sworn that she saw Dark give her a small smile, but the movement must have been so quick and brief that she wasn’t sure if she’d imagined it or not. Either way, Dark turned to leave.

“I’ll be sure to let you know when I can make time for the occasion,” he said, before his form seemed to leech away into the shadows. 

(Y/n) waited a moment before pulling the map out of her pocket and unfolding it under the table. And, sure enough, Dark had disappeared from sight, his name nowhere to be seen on the paper. She breathed a sigh of relief before remembering that Dark had stolen her mystery book.

_ Fuck! That was my only lead on this stupid map! Why did I have to ask him what it said? I could have just asked Anti or Die when they’d come back! God, why am I so stupid? _

She thought angrily to herself. Her anger soon died down as her thoughts were dragged back to her response to him earlier.

_ ‘I’d love that.’ God. Why can’t I think before I speak? I’m sure he thinks I’m a proper fool now. Who says that to their enemy? A proper fool, that’s who. _

About another hour or so had passed before (Y/n) heard the doors to the library swing open. 

_ Is Dark back already? _

She wondered before hearing Die’s voice.

“Flare?”

“I’m over here,” she called out, and after a few moments Die appeared at the entrance to the study.

“Sorry to have left you for so long, I thought I’d be back a lot sooner,” he explained, flattening down the front of his jacket. 

“It’s fine,” (Y/n) replied, “Not that I really got a lot of reading done.”

“Why’s that? Couldn’t you find an interesting book to read?” Die asked thoughtlessly.

(Y/n) held up her book on daegicae. “They’re all in Latin.” She said. 

Die’s eyebrows raised in realisation. “How utterly stupid of me!” he began anxiously, rushing over. “I truly am sorry, Flare, I didn’t even realise-”

“It’s fine, Die,” (Y/n) smiled at him. “Really, it’s fine. I know you didn’t do it on purpose. But if you still needed to hear it, I forgive you.”

“I see…” Die said after a moment. He looked down to the book she had. “Maybe I can help you read the book you have there?” he offered, but (Y/n) shook her head.

“No, um… thank you, but it’s alright. I already had an offer.” 

Die furrowed his brow slightly, as if trying to think of who it could be. “Oh. Well, once again I apologise greatly for the inconvenience I made,” he bowed to (Y/n), catching her off-guard. Usually, it was  _ humans _ bowing to  _ demons _ in apology, never the other way around. The surprise soon wore off as (Y/n) realised it was just in Die’s nature.

“And I’m sorry to interrupt whatever you were previously doing, but I came to inform you that the kitchen is preparing your lunch now, so it would be best if you returned to your room soon.” He said.

“Oh. Thank you, Die.” (Y/n) said a little awkwardly. She still wasn’t used to how passive Die was, especially for a demon. If she didn’t know any better (Y/n) would have sworn that he was one of the castle servants.

Suddenly Anti appeared in the room, a little off to the side. “Aha! I knew ye’d be in here!”

Die looked a little surprised to see Anti. “Anti, I thought you weren’t going to be back before tomorrow afternoon?” he asked.

“Yeah, but I wormed my way outta there,” Anti responded. “They  _ really _ wanted me to stay, too, but it was so fuckin’ borin’ talkin’ to ‘em that I had to get out of there, y’know?”

Die looked a little worried. “Well, it’s great to have you back so soon.” He said quickly after a moment. “And I’m terribly sorry, but it seems I have to go tend to more pressing matters,” and with a brief farewell Die teleported away.

“What was  _ his _ deal?” Anti asked, and (Y/n) shrugged her shoulders. 

“What were you off doing, again?” she asked him.

“Oh, it was just some borin’  _ ‘King’s Guard’ _ stuff. Meetin’s, stuck-up demons… that kinda shit.” Anti said.

(Y/n) nodded her head, picking up the book she had on the coffee table. “Do you reckon you could take me back to my room?” she asked after a moment. “Die said that lunch was being prepared, and I’m pretty hungry, actually.”

“God, what am I, yer slave or somethin’?” Anti complained, but put up no fight when (Y/n) stood up and walked over to him. 


	17. The Disagreement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I literally forgot to update LMAO

Anti teleported them into (Y/n)'s room and she looked around.

"Where are Sparky and Howl?" she asked quietly.

"No idea. I'll do you one better, though, what's that weird piece a paper you've got on ye?" Anti asked out of the blue. (Y/n) tensed up slightly.

"The what? I have no idea what you're on about, Anti. Honestly, try speaking English and next time I might understand you." She retorted, although her tone was very half-hearted.

_Is he talking about the map? How does he know about it?_

She thought frantically, her back facing Anti.

_There's no way he saw it!_

"How'd you get yer hands on _this_?" she heard him ask in amazement. (Y/n) spun around and saw Anti holding up the map, seemingly inspecting it.

"What?" she started patting down all of her pockets. "How did you-?"

"The better question is where in the hell did you find it?" Anti cut her off. "And I'm a demon, I could feel the magical energy radiatin' off this thing from the moment I touched ya."

"Give it back!" she exclaimed, rushing over to grab it. Anti raised it above his head so that she had no possible way of reaching it. "That's _mine!_ It's none of your business where I found it!"

"Do you even know what it is?" Anti asked, pushing her away.

"Of course I do!" she said. "It's a weird... map... thing. Now give it back!"

Anti rolled his eyes. "No, you dipwad, it's the _Charta Visus_." He noticed (Y/n)'s blank expression. "The _'Paper of Seeing'_? You nimrod, I knew you had no idea what it was!"

"Does it matter? _I_ found it!" she argued.

" _Where_ did you find it?" Anti pressed.

"Nunya!"

(Y/n) jumped up again to try and reach the map, inevitably being too short to reach it. A sudden knock at the door caught both of their attention, and (Y/n) took this opportunity to yank Anti's arm downwards and snatch the map back into her grasp.

Before Anti could protest the door opened to reveal Mandy- the maid who delivered (Y/n)'s meals.

"Hello, Mandy," (Y/n) said quickly, stuffing the map back into her pocket. Anti rolled his eyes again.

"H-Hello Commander," Mandy froze up for a moment upon seeing Anti in the room. She said nothing else, only looking quickly away from him as she scurried over to (Y/n)'s bedside table to set down the tray of food and promptly scurry back out.

When she'd gone (Y/n) pulled the map back out of her pocket, smoothing it out against her leg. She noticed the map had changed locations, now focussing on her room and it's surrounding areas.

"What makes ye think it's yours?" Anti asked exasperatedly, nodding towards the map as he crossed his arms over his chest. "It was made by demons, why should a human get to keep it?"

(Y/n) turned to look at him. "You might know what it's _called_ , but do you know what it _is_?" he didn't reply. "Because it sounds to me like you're just making excuses so that you can keep it."

"Look, _nobody_ knows what it is or where it came from- other than what it does," Anti explained.

"Nobody?"

"Nobody. Not even Dark." Anti said.

"How did you know it exists, then?" (Y/n) asked.

"I dunno. It just appeared one day, someone began to study it and then it disappeared again. It reappears and disappears through time but nobody knows why. It's older than the kingdom itself, the Charta Visus has been around for eons." Anti finished.

"How could it just... _disappear?_ " (Y/n) wondered aloud.

"Fuck do I know," Anti muttered, kicking his foot against the ground.

A look of what seemed to be realisation dawned on (Y/n)'s face and Anti must have noticed. "What is it?" He asked, pulling her from her thoughts, and she looked up to meet his eyes.

"You don't think the Charta Visus has a... well, I don't know, a _consciousness_ of some kind, do you?"

"What? Of course I don't, that'd be fuckin' stupid!" Anti snorted.

"I don't know, it did something that I... still can't really explain, to be honest." She looked off to the side in thought.

"Like what? Make you a sandwich?" Anti jeered, but (Y/n) ignored him.

"No, you idiot, it actually _did_ something," she looked up at Anti again, and it seemed he was ready to listen to her now. "When I first found the map, it was in Latin-"

"What?" Anti interjected rudely, "Can't you understand the difference between English and Latin, ye fuckin' mutton-head? Clearly, the map is in English, _not_ Latin-"

"I was getting there! Now would you just shut up already and listen?" (Y/n) exclaimed. When Anti didn't respond, she sighed before continuing.

" _As I was saying_ , it was in Latin when I first found it, but I muttered out-loud about how I can't read Latin and it... _changed_ itself, that's the only way I can describe it."

Anti nodded his head in understanding. "The real question here is why the fuck were ye talkin' to yerself like a crazy person?" he said, and (Y/n) punched him in the arm.

"Ow! That hurt!" Anti growled, rubbing his shoulder.

"I'm being serious, Anti! Would you just shut up for five goddamn seconds? Do you want to know more about this map or leave a _human_ to be the only person ever to know anything interesting about it?" she asked somewhat angrily.

Anti could tell that she was fed up with him now, even if he really wasn't very good at noticing social cues- especially ones that told him to shut the fuck up and be quiet.

"Okay, fine, I'll shut up, just don't fuckin' punch me again," he said.

"Are you sure?" (Y/n) asked again.

"Yes, I'm sure! I won't be an annoying prick for the rest of the day, cross me fuckin' heart." He used his finger to mark a cross on his chest where (Y/n) _assumed_ his heart was. She didn't have enough energy to debate with him over if he anatomically had a heart or not.

(Y/n) waited a moment, recollecting her thoughts. "After it changed to English, I noticed my name on it- except it didn't say ' _Flare'_ , it said ' _(Y/n)'_." she paused. "You're the only person I've ever revealed my real name to since my family died."

Anti seemed to become more serious now. "What? You never told me that!" he said. "Not even ye rebellion friends know?"

(Y/n) felt a pang of guilt in her chest. How had she told one of her captors something so important before even her _friends_? (Y/n) noticed a nagging voice at the back of her head.

_Anti's your friend too._

He _was_ her friend, without a doubt; but (Y/n) still felt guilty over having not revealed the secret to anyone from the rebellion in the three years she'd lived there.

"No, none of them know." She managed to finally say. "So I wasn't sure how the map even _knew_ my birth name. When I realised it said my birth name instead of Flare, the map... _changed_ again. Both times it was almost as if it accepted my requests."

"Now that's just creepy," Anti said. "I don't know about any of this _consciousness_ bullshit, but it's definitely weird. Anyway, I gotta go tell Dark that I'm back early, otherwise I'll be sure to get an earful from 'im." (Y/n) nodded her head and he teleported away promptly.

God, Anti was annoying sometimes- unbearable, even- but (Y/n) didn't know what she'd do without him. She'd probably have gone insane by now without him. Or maybe he'd just slowly driven her insane anyway? It wouldn't have surprised (Y/n), with how far he pushed her boundaries all the time.

Her stomach rumbled, so she decided to walk over and sit down on the side of her bed and eat her lunch.

\----

Dark wandered aimlessly around his office, holding his hands neatly behind his back. For the first time in what felt like his life Dark wasn't sure what to do.

He felt a deep rift within himself, an inner conflict of some kind. But not the usual rift he was very used to by now.

This feeling was _different_.

Yet somehow it felt... oddly _familiar_.

How can something feel completely new yet somehow familiar at the same time? He didn't know. And that's why he was so unsure.

Was he sick? Could demons even get sick? Maybe he should consult Die on this... then again, would Die even know what to do?

Dark glanced back to the book that sat on his desk; the one he'd confiscated from Flare earlier.

_"...It's an encyclopaedia on plants,"_

Well, it certainly _wasn't_ an encyclopaedia on plants. Although Flare couldn't read Latin, Dark didn't want Die or Anti to tell her what any of it truly meant.

 _'Est Vinculum Animarum'_ , as the book was titled. Though it didn't contain any information that could pose a real threat, it still revealed possible weaknesses about demons that Dark didn't want the rebellion to catch wind of.

_But anima verto has never been proven to exist._ **_Withholding fairy-tales from the rebellion? Getting paranoid now, aren't we Darkiplier?_ **

Dark shook his head to clear it. Were those thoughts his? They felt _partly_ his, yet the other half felt... intrusive. Dark thought back to what had happened in the library.

_"Liar. Why did you lie to her?"_

He'd been thinking about it ever since he'd left Flare. Where could such an intrusive thought have come from? What had provoked it? Why didn't it feel like _his_?

**_Feeling a little bit crazy now, aren't you? Have you gone mad?_ **

**_T h a t ' s e x a c t l y h o w I f e l t ._ **

Those last few words rang out painfully in Dark's head like a church-bell. He awaited something else to be said, but it never came. There was only silence once again.

Dark was stunned. After those words, he felt as though he had some grasp on what was going on, but he couldn't be certain. He had to find Die immediately.

He turned to walk out of the room but Anti appeared directly in front of him, and Dark nearly ran straight into him.

"Woah, what's with the rush, Dark? Slow yer roll, you'll knock someone over!" Anti took a few steps back to leave space between him and Dark.

"Anti? What are you doing back so soon?" Dark tried his best not to sound panicked. Anti coming back early was the _last_ thing he needed, but he had to remain calm.

"Yeah, that's what I came to tell ye! I decided to leave early since it fuckin' _sucked_ ," he rolled his eyes. "You know I hate meetin's and talkin' to people."

"I'm... sorry to hear that, Anti." Dark responded slowly. It was quiet for a moment while Dark thought. "Anti, there's something I've been meaning to ask you,"

"What, _you_ askin' _me_ somethin'?" Anti feigned surprise. "What has the world come to?"

Dark didn't seem amused, and Anti realised this must have been something important. Not that Dark was ever amused anyway.

"It's... about the girl," Dark started unsurely. "You two seem particularly close."

"Who, me and the lass? Sure, I guess so." Anti said. "What about it?"

He expected Dark to make some offhanded comment about how he shouldn't be making friends with the enemy, or how he shouldn't be mucking around with her or something like that, but Anti was pleasantly surprised.

"...I was wondering how exactly... you achieved that?" Dark asked softly. "You two seem to get on well. Is it the tone of your voice? The way you walk? I can't quite comprehend it, so I thought I'd ask you directly." He explained.

"Listen," Anti began, "Just talk to her the way that yer talkin' to me now."

"I'm... not following?"

Anti rolled his eyes. For the most powerful demon to ever exist, Dark wasn't very bright at times.

"Talk to her the way you would a demon, not a human," Anti explained. "Like..." he couldn't seem to place his next words.

"Like an equal?" Dark finished.

"Yeah!" Anti snapped his fingers in Dark's direction. "Exactly! The way you would a friend!"

Anti realised Dark still had a somewhat confused expression, sighing to himself. "Just be you. Don't be overly nice like Die, don't be a shithead like me, just be _yerself._ She's already in a weird, new place. Don't confuse her more."

Dark thought to himself on this. He then turned to look at Anti. "Yes, well, thank you for the advice. I do appreciate it."

"No worries," Anti said. "I'd rather be here givin' you advice than at that stupid meeting still." He laughed to himself.

Dark suddenly remembered why it was so important for Anti to not be here. "Why _did_ you leave early, again?"

"Because I wanted to," Anti said. "I'd had enough of talkin' to stupid demons."

"I see..." Dark trailed off. "And nobody stopped you from leaving?"

"Why does everyone keep actin' like it's a big deal? If ye all hate me that much I should just move away!" Anti joked. He noticed Dark's concerned expression. "...Unless there's somethin' ye ain't tellin' me?"

"Of course not," Dark reassured him.

_Does he not trust me or something? What the fuck is up?_

Dark unintentionally read Anti's thoughts and replied before he could stop himself. "Of course I trust you, Anti,"

"What?" Anti's gaze hardened as he realised what Dark was doing. "Why are ye readin' me thoughts then?"

"An honest mistake, but even so there's no reason to feel as though I don't trust you, Anti," Dark said quickly.

**_Was it an honest mistake?_ **

The voice was back again. Dark really didn't need it right now, especially when he was trying to soothe Anti's worries.

"Then why aren't ye tellin' me why you and Die wanted me gone so badly?" Anti insisted. "I know I'm a fuckin' pest, all ye gotta do is say it to me face."

"Anti, that's not what's going on here," Dark tried to say.

"Oh yeah? Well, then what _is_ going on?"

"I didn't think you'd want to be here while Blank visited," Dark explained bluntly, but Anti only seemed to become more agitated.

" _What?_ " Dark noticed Anti began to glitch slightly.

 ** _Isn't that a bad thing?_** The voice in Dark's head asked suddenly.

"Shut up," he spat back under his breath.

"Why are ye tellin' _me_ to shut up?" Anti sounded outraged. " _You're_ the one who's lettin' that fuckin' traitor back in these walls! _You_ of all people!"

"No, Anti, I wasn't talking to you," Dark muttered.

"As if! I'm the only one fuckin' here!" Anti growled, his glitches only amplifying. "Yer takin' that backstabbing _fuckwad_ over me? What did I do to piss you off so fuckin' much?" he seemed more angry than upset.

"Anti, please, this is exactly why I asked for you to be gone while Blank was here," Dark said quietly. He was trying his best to stay calm but his patience was wearing thin.

"We all know that fuckin' dirtbag got nothin' for what he did! You of all people I'd expect to have something done about it, yet it seems that the great _'Darkiplier'_ isn't as _great_ as he'd like everyone to think," Anti exclaimed angrily.

"It's none of your business how I rule my kingdom," Dark snapped. Anti had no place to argue with him on fronts such as this.

"Oh, so it's _your_ kingdom now? That's funny, because I distinctly remember there being two other demons responsible for helpin' the so called _'King'_ claim his throne! Or does Die not matter to you now either?" The glitches emanating from Anti started to displace objects in the room, teleporting books from the shelf to the floor and moving pens from one side of Dark's desk to the other.

"Blank has done nothing for you- he betrayed you! He betrayed _all_ of us, Dark!" Anti balled his fists at his side.

"I know that Die isn't very vocal about it but it's only because he doesn't want to upset you. And here you go bringing that _snake_ and all his lies back into the castle. I want you to decide right here, right now, who yer gonna choose." Anti took another step back, his glitches also reeling back in severity.

"I know that no matter what the fuck ye do, Die will stuck by yer side. But I can't act like that son of a bitch Blank didn't dupe us all. So it's him or me, Dark." He stared at Dark with a stern expression, but Dark could see the inner conflict in Anti's eyes.

After looking away for a moment, Dark turned back to Anti for his final verdict. "Anti, I'm not even sure why he's coming. So the least I can do is hear him out."

The calmness in Anti's eyes disappeared in the blink of an eye, replaced only with a fiery hostility that Dark had not seen in centuries.

"After all these years ye still can't stand up to that motherfucker? Some king you are!" Anti's voice was grossly distorted, and his figure was almost completely blocked out by interchanging glitches. "If that's how it's going to be I'll see myself out until that prick is gone for good!"

He was suddenly consumed by an enormous mass of glitches, every object in the room flying into the air before falling to the ground once he'd disappeared completely.

Dark was left in the stillness of his office.

He staggered over to his desk, slumping down against the front of it, absolutely drained of all his energy.

**_That went well._ **

"Oh, shut up."

With all that was going on right now, the last thing Dark had needed was to lose one of his dearest friends. Yet here he was.


End file.
